William Cope
Wei Liu
Pinakini Shah
Greg Jack
Leah Goldberg
Nell C Rundle
Bahar AnahmiasNew Learning MOOC’s Updates
“Every child deserves access to a high-quality education, no matter their ZIP code.
This statement clearly sets a social objective: education should be equal for all children.
But it is very general. It sounds good and expresses a value (fairness), yet it does not explain how the government will achieve equal quality—such as funding changes, teacher support, or curriculum reforms.
The statement “Every child deserves access to a high-quality education, no matter their ZIP code” expresses an important social goal, but it remains very broad. It tells us what we want—fairness and equal opportunity—but not how we will actually make it happen. For true educational equality, the government would need to take concrete steps, such as improving funding for under-resourced schools, supporting teachers with better training and working conditions, updating curriculum to meet diverse needs, and ensuring access to technology and safe learning environments. Without specific actions like these, the statement stays at the level of a hopeful promise rather than a real, workable plan for achieving equal quality in education.
The statement “Every child deserves access to a high-quality education, no matter their ZIP code” expresses an important social goal, but it remains very broad. It tells us what we want—fairness and equal opportunity—but not how we will actually make it happen. For true educational equality, the government would need to take concrete steps, such as improving funding for under-resourced schools, supporting teachers with better training and working conditions, updating curriculum to meet diverse needs, and ensuring access to technology and safe learning environments. Without specific actions like these, the statement stays at the level of a hopeful promise rather than a real, workable plan for achieving equal quality in education.
The statement “Every child deserves access to a high-quality education, no matter their ZIP code” expresses an important social goal, but it remains very broad. It tells us what we want—fairness and equal opportunity—but not how we will actually make it happen. For true educational equality, the government would need to take concrete steps, such as improving funding for under-resourced schools, supporting teachers with better training and working conditions, updating curriculum to meet diverse needs, and ensuring access to technology and safe learning environments. Without specific actions like these, the statement stays at the level of a hopeful promise rather than a real, workable plan for achieving equal quality in education.
The statement “Every child deserves access to a high-quality education, no matter their ZIP code” expresses an important social goal, but it remains very broad. It tells us what we want—fairness and equal opportunity—but not how we will actually make it happen. For true educational equality, the government would need to take concrete steps, such as improving funding for under-resourced schools, supporting teachers with better training and working conditions, updating curriculum to meet diverse needs, and ensuring access to technology and safe learning environments. Without specific actions like these, the statement stays at the level of a hopeful promise rather than a real, workable plan for achieving equal quality in education.
I totally support the idea of free access to quality schools in urban dwellings not based on ZIP code or home address registrations but tie it to performance of kids. This in its turn will create free competition and meritocracy among people of various social classes and economic categories. Obviously the non-availability of schooling for children in urban areas is not the case only in developing countries but looks like the problem in many countries.
As a parent from Kazakhstan our family has been facing the issue of a priviliged access to quality education since the high-quality teaching is available only in the areas of the city where middle class or affluent people live. Urban agglomerations of Kazakhstan like Almaty, Astana or Shymkent are now experiencing the shortages of schools due to high level of birth rates in early 2000s.
As a result top quality schools in the vicinity of city centre became overcrowded that children from outskirts and suburbs had inundated good schools that it immediately also pushed for corruption and nepotism. For example, in such schools an average class size took in 40-45 children. The ZIP code based or in Kazakhstan the official living address registration system created the inequality, unfair competition in the society that economically deprived tiers of society got further sidelined and their children had to suffice the school available in the area.
However, the rapid urbanisation process created another issue - marginalisation of the people who came to cities in pursuit of better life. In return they added other issues to their existing problems in the rural dwelling, including the lack of quality education. On top of that total digitalisation of their kids made almost zombies as the whole day parents are busy at work or working hard to bring the food on their table. Further, the outskirts of the cities were built with ghetto style multi-storey apartment blocks with schools and medical facilities that aggravated the already existing problem. Local municipalities attempts to build modern schools were not enough as the number of children exceeded the number of available places for the socially sidelined families that again the schooling is accompanied with overcrowding in classes. And finally, the lack of or shortage of high quality teachers of various subjects are actually the causes of good quality education at universities. So, the interconnected issues are creating the entire huge problem.