How the education system keeps the poor in poverty

I write a lot about how politics is money, power and frustration. These all come together in the supposedly benign topic of education. Ask any politician about education and they will talk all day about how important it is and then give you their opinion on how more or less government will make it better or worse. It's easy to believe in quality education for everyone, but incredibly difficult to figure out how to make it happen.

Especially for people living in poverty.

The Atlantic has a great article about how the rules a lot of colleges operate with make applying to college difficult or nearly impossible for many low-income students. As they sum it up:

"The labyrinthine rules and processes surrounding scholarships, loans, and financial aid did not account for the messy realities of poor families' lives."

There are some great anecdotes in the article and I recommend it for anyone interested in the day-to-day reality of high school teachers and counselors who care trying to help students. I'm a former teacher and worked with many students who came from low-income homes. Sometimes not having $100 application fee is an issue. Sometimes family structure and tax histories don't fit well with what student loan applications require.

Many times, the student is the first in their family to go to college so all of the language and the emotional landscape of what it means to leave home for school is all new and challenging. Whatever the issues, it's always on the student, their family and the high school to deal with, not the college. If they want in to the university system, that's the hurdle. For someone coming out of an unstable financial situation, that can be a big hurdle.

Politically speaking, this is systemic oppression. It largely keeps a certain group out of a supposedly open opportunity for advancement. If politicians want to do something about crime, hunger, urban violence and a raft of other issues in impoverished neighborhoods, they should invest heavily in supporting people from within those communities to get through college, not allow it to remain challenging to even get into the door.

Image courtesy of ajagendorf25 via flickr