Organizing for Equity - Most Policymakers Have Done Little for Our Poorest Schools—Can Parents Fill the Void?

Oct 15, 2026

The article argues that, despite decades of civil rights documentation and criticism, an enduring achievement gap persists because inequitable investment in poor communities—especially communities of color—has been largely neglected. It contends that limited demonstration projects have not been scaled, while political and economic constraints reduce momentum for transformative education funding. It links widening income inequality to broader social harms and portrays education spending disparities and failing public systems as daily realities for families. It highlights parental organizing as a practical response to overcrowding, high teacher turnover, decaying facilities, and insufficient learning resources.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Organizing for Equity

Achievement gap and neglected investment

Political and economic barriers to reform

Income inequality and its social effects

Education spending disparities and school failures

Community organizing and parental leadership

Organizing for Equity Most Policymakers Have Done Little for Our Poorest Schools—Can Parents Fill the Void? ILLUSTRATIONS BY DANIEL BAXTER By Michael B. Fabricant At least since the civil rights movement, Americans have documented and decried—but done little to decrease—the achievement gap. This gulf, one of many that divide us by race and class, has festered in part because the larger question of inequitable investment in poor Michael B. Fabricant is a professor in the School of Social Work and the executive officer of the doctoral program in social welfare at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is also the treasurer of the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing CUNY’s faculty and staff. His most recent book, coauthored with Michelle Fine, is Anatomy of the Charter School Movement: Deregulation, Disinvestment, and the Destabilization of Democratic Public Education; it will be published by Teachers College Press in the spring of 2011. Portions of this article are excerpted with permission from Organizing for Educational Justice: The Campaign for Public School Reform in the South Bronx, by Michael B. Fabricant, published in 2010 by the University of Minnesota Press ([upress.umn.edu/Books/F/fabricant_organizing](upress.umn.edu/Books/F/fabricant_organizing)). communities of color has long been neglected. Demonstration projects of various kinds have been tested in selected communities—but little has been made of the successes. Demonstration projects, if they work, are meant to be scaled up; however, a more ambitious, transformative investment in a cross section of poor communities across the nation has never been attempted. The reticence to make such an investment has to do with the magnitude of resources required and a lack of political will. Presently, any call for such investment is undercut by both the recession and a political reluctance to tax even the wealthiest citizens. Income inequality in the United States is now at its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the “top 10 percent of the income distribution has claimed almost two-thirds of the gain to overall incomes since 1979, with the top 1 percent alone claiming 38.7 percent of overall gains.”1 Child poverty is increasing, the middle class is disappearing, and the wealthy are becoming dramatically wealthier. In 1983, the net worth of the 36 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 wealthiest 1 percent of households was 131 times greater than the to mount such a challenge are parents, students, and teachers. median family net worth. By 2007, it was 181 times greater—and The breakdowns in public systems of education in the poorest by 2009, it was 225 times greater.2 Such inequality is neither natu- communities of color are best described not with cold numbers, ral nor inevitable: the United States has the highest income dis- but with the language of those who live with those failures daily. parity among Western industrialized nations.3 And, as the article In District 9 of the South Bronx, a group of parents has long on page 5 demonstrates, income inequality is highly detrimental. struggled with the manyways the system is failing their children. Across whole societies (not just among the poor), income inequal- At a community meeting, one parent-turned-leader, Ocynthia ity is related to an array of social problems, including poorer Williams, a thoughtful and articulate critic of local schooling, health, more stress, higher crime, and lower academic talked about the reasons parents needed to organize: “We are achievement. doing what we have to do to change a situation that dooms our Our income inequality is mirrored in our nation’s inequitable kids to failure. We have classes that are overcrowded, teachers that spending on public education. As the most recent Quality Counts leave after a year or two because th

FAQs

Why does the achievement gap persist according to the article?

Because inequitable investment in poor communities, particularly communities of color, has been neglected for decades, allowing disparities to fester even as the problem has been documented and criticized.

What barriers does the article cite against transformative education investment?

The article points to the magnitude of resources required and limited political will, further undercut by recession conditions and reluctance to tax even the wealthiest citizens.

How does the article connect income inequality to education and social problems?

It argues that income inequality is reflected in inequitable public spending on education and is associated with broader social issues such as more stress and higher crime, alongside poorer academic outcomes.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by McGucket