make a claim about an issue of educational equity in your local context.

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Educational Equity
Patsy Mink, a former Japanese-American politician, once remarked that the problem with the country’s educational system was not the lack of choices but the inequities that continued to persist well into the 21st century. Indeed, inequities are ubiquitous in every society, and the number of inequities continues to grow with human progress. However, it is very disappointing that inequities have become widespread in academic institutions where learners are expected to stand firm against such practices (Windzio 119). Institutions of learning ought to be venues where the principles of equality and compromise are inculcated in the young generation. The growing income inequality, which is a major equity issue in institutions of learning, has led to an increase in gaps in academic achievement and the educational accomplishment of learners.
Family income is among the main factors that predict the scores for college admission examinations. Parents who want their children to perform well must be wealthy enough to provide them with the education that yields desirable results. Differences in the levels of math and reading achievement of high- and low-income students are larger compared to a few decades ago (Krolak-Schwerdt, Sabine, and Matthias 13). The situation is the same for college graduation rates. On the face of it, this might appear an obvious outcome. In any case, wealthier families can afford to take their children to expensive private schools that often have significantly more resources.

However, a scrutiny of this educational achievement gap during the last few decades suggests that the gap has been widening alongside the increasing wealth and income inequality in the country.
The last three decades have witnessed a sustained increase in inequality in wealth, income, and wages. This has caused more wealth to accrue to those at the zenith of the economic hierarchy, thereby pulling the wealthy further away from those who occupy the lower rungs. The increasing gap in educational achievement has also attended this increase in income and wealth inequality. During the 1980s, for instance, the gap between math and reading skills of the wealthiest in the society was relatively small in comparison to what it is now. This mounting gap can be attributed to the differences in the manner in which children are prepared for school prior to entering pre-kindergarten or even kindergarten. In fact, kindergartens were originally meant for children of affluent families, although social reformers later used them to ensure that children from low-income families were also prepared for school (Hacsi 23).
For the most part, income and wealth characterize the educational gap today, perhaps more than ethnicity and race. In an era of growing economic inequality, affluent parents have significantly more resources (in terms of both money and time) to ensure that their children are better prepared to succeed in their academic endeavors and later in life. Consequently, poor and rich children score differently even before joining kindergarten, and this is usually evident during school readiness tests. It is important to point out that the increasing gap in educational achievement is a threat to the country’s future economic growth. The country is not effectively developing the economic potential of its future workforce because only a few individuals receive the best education. To ensure that the economy grows, it is necessary that opportunities for education and enrichment be availed to children across the entire income spectrum instead of only a select wealthy few.
Works Cited
Hacsi, Timothy A. Children as Pawns: The Politics of Educational Reform. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. Print.
Krolak-Schwerdt, Sabine, Sabine Glock, and Matthias Böhmer. Teachers’ Professional Development: Assessment, Training, and Learning. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2014. Print.
Windzio, Michael. Integration and Inequality in Educational Institutions. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. Print.