‘Overwhelming evidence’ education system leaves too many poorer students behind, despite decades of policy focus
Schools see kids for about 6 hours a day, 190 days of the year. Schools try, teachers try, but ultimately school can’t compensate for the other 18 hours of the day, or the other 175 days of the year- whether that’s things like unstable housing, a lack of resources to do homework, parents who are working long hours/two jobs so less able to offer support, food insecurity, kids who are working outside of school because they need the cash, kids with caring responsibilities etc etc etc- and we also know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds already arrive at school (on average) with deficits compared to those from wealthier homes.
Then, we could talk about the inequality baked into our education system...
But the fact of the matter is that as much as rich liberals want to pretend that everyone has the same chance to succeed, that simply isn’t true. We can’t end inequality without ending inequality. Schools can, at best, only paper over the cracks.