Paying the Price

Paying Paying the the Paid education disparities require systematic, individual solutions Price Price

Lance locker, elizabeth yuan

When climbing up the rungs of education, the next step often takes a leap, not a reach. With each new milestone, the distance between footholds in the ladder only grows as students face new academic challenges. In theory, students should face relatively equal difculty when moving up rungs compared to their peers. However, even in a country that takes pride in providing equal access to free education, some students are able to pay for an exclusive harness pulling them to the top.

While it’s not wrong for students to use their available resources to pay for an advantage like tutoring to better their education, students without such access face unjust constraints to their academic growth. It’s no secret that private tutoring can be a valuable and expensive asset to a student’s education. While group learning ofered in public schools provides a crucial baseline education, one-on-one teaching sessions like private tutoring services, lessons with music teachers and online courses for standardized tests like the SAT are often more impactful. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, tutoring programs by teachers and paraprofessionals “yield consistent and substantial positive impacts on learning outcomes,” especially among earlier grade levels.

The association between socioeconomic status and education is further exemplifed by the correlation between family income and SAT scores. The College Board’s 2021 Total Group SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report published data that demonstrated a strong association between the highest level of parental education—which tends to refect family income—and SAT test scores. On average, students whose parents had no high school diploma scored 30% lower than students whose parents had a graduate degree.

While students that pay for better education have an unfair advantage, the solution to the disparity is not to restrict those individuals from bettering themselves, as this inevitably leads to more students unable to reach their highest academic potentials. Instead, reducing the disparity in education requires systemic change to nip the problem in the bud.

School funding is one area that requires large-scale action. With ample funding, Stevenson is able to ofer several options for students to get help in their classes. The ILC and ELC tutors, along with the many teachers that have ofce hours, grant students from varying backgrounds a chance to better their learning—something that students of all districts should be able to count on.

One initiative from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) attempting to create systemic change is the CPS Tutor Corps, a collection of teachers and tutors paid by CPS to ofer free tutoring to Chicago students. This program is an example of the importance of states sufciently funding their schools in an efort to reduce educational disparities.

Individual actions from students—especially those with a paid education—can also help reduce the disparity. Stevenson’s National Honor Society has practiced the virtue of paying education forward through the Jack London Middle School tutoring program held last year. Seven Stevenson students ofered to travel to the less afuent district to ofer their support to students from diferent backgrounds. In fact, some students have taken action into their own hands. The Stevenson student-founded non-proft Math-Aid Tutoring has also worked to provide hundreds of hours of free private tutoring to younger students with access to fewer resources.

The ladder of education presents an intimidating challenge to students that aren’t able to receive help as they climb higher. The burden of change required to reduce income-based educational disparities largely relies on the funding that schools receive. But, for students with enough resources to reach the upper rungs of the ladder: pitch in by ofering a hand to peers looking to reach the same heights as you.