Understanding Equality and Equity
Equality is a worthy ideal, but it presupposes that all people are afforded the same access, resources, and opportunities to succeed. Sadly, that’s never been the case in the U.S. Despite the adoption of essential legal protections — like the 14th Amendment, which holds that each person is entitled to the same rights, freedoms, and legal protections as others, regardless of their age, gender, identity, race, or sexual orientation; and Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segregation in schools and employment discrimination— we are seeing rollbacks to these established ideals. These protections are supposed to be the backbone of our democracy and a free society, but they’re insufficient on their own to counter deeply entrenched patterns of racial disadvantage in our education system and the U.S. more broadly.
Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds continue to have unequal access to educational opportunities at every level — from preschool through college. They disproportionately attend underfunded schools and have less access to STEM and advanced coursework opportunities, and insufficient mental-health and social, emotional, and academic supports in elementary, middle, and high schools. All students — regardless of race, ethnicity, family income, zip code — are entitled to excellent educational opportunities and the resources and supports they need to succeed in school.
Education equity means fairness; and to achieve it, schools will need to provide additional resources and supports to underserved students and students who’ve experienced hardship.
Education equity means expanding access to high-quality early childhood education, sending additional funding to under-resourced school districts that collect less tax revenue and serve more students of color and students from low-income backgrounds who’ve long been given short shrift.