Equal Opportunity In Education?

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There is the question of equality, which is basically central to the American focus of life, but what is meant by equality, and does one type of equality, such as opportunity, mean the same as achievement?  If the government spends extraordinary amounts of money on remedial work and entitlement programs while neglecting equal support for the more advanced work to the same degree, is it equality?   In seeking equal opportunity in education, often mediocrity is the result-“the miserable rut!”

The Declaration of Independence written in 1776 declared that: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Our nation was established on this pattern, but does it declare equal opportunity to all in every area of endeavor?   Thomas Jefferson said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”  Governmental control of education creates a great fallacy!

J. Gresham Machen (July 28, 1881 – January 1, 1937) was a great American Presbyterian theologian, educator, and intellectual in the early twentieth  century.  He took the lead in founding Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia (1929) where he taught New Testament until his death.  He commented seventy-five years ago in 1934 about the fallacy of “Equal Opportunity,” saying: “We are constantly told, it is true, that there ought to be an equal opportunity for all the children in the United States; therefore, it is said, federal aid ought to be given to backward states.  But what shall we say about this business of ‘equal opportunity?’ I will tell you what I say about it; I am entirely opposed to it.  One thing is perfectly clear:  If all the children in the United States have equal opportunities, no child will have opportunity that is worth very much.  If parents cannot have the great incentive of providing high and special educational advantages for their own children, then we shall have in this country a drab and soul-killing uniformity, and there will be scarcely any opportunity for anyone to get out of the miserable rut.”

Machen went on to say:  “The thing is really quite clear. Every lover of human freedom ought to oppose with all his might the giving of federal aid to the schools of this country; for federal aid in the long run inevitably means federal control, and federal control means control by a centralized and irresponsible bureaucracy, and control of a bureaucracy means the death of everything that might make this country great…If it once becomes monopolistic, it is the most effective engine of tyranny and intellectual stagnation that has yet been devised.”

Debates are raging about how and whether increased federal spending really improves the quality of public education as it seeks to provide equal educational opportunity for all students in America.  We have observed a great flood of funds into schooling in America, ever increasing since the mid 1960s. The increased funds have helped the lower level students to some degree, but at great expense to the more advanced students.  We have tried to federally pull up the lower levels of education, and then wonder why America has fallen behind other industrialized nations in educational achievement.

Polling data shows that many people believe the government allocates insufficient resources to schools. A poll conducted annually from 2004 through 2007 found that American adults list insufficient funding and resources as a top problem facing public schools.  The American public feels the answer to low student achievement is more government programs and more taxpayer money.  Money is supposed to buy everything!  But the evidence does not support it. Simply increasing education spending does not appear to improve American students’ academic achievement.

Can we continue on the same course?  The U.S. economy is a mess, as twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia face budget shortfalls totaling approximately US$48 billion for fiscal year 2009.  Shortfalls are everywhere!  The projected growth of entitlement programs is expected to place an ever-increasing burden on the federal budget, limiting the resources available for other purposes.  However, simply increasing government spending on education may no longer be a viable option for federal and state policymakers, if it ever was in the first place.

In 2007, the federal government spent US$71.7 billion on elementary and secondary education. Of this the Department of Education spent US$39.2 billion in particular on K–12.   The largest programs in were “Education for the Disadvantaged” (US$14.8 billion) and “Special Education” (US$11.5 billion).  That total amount is US$26.3 billion or over a one-third of the US$71.7 billion, and over two-thirds of the US$39.2 billion.  Does this sound like equal opportunity?

Native abilities and personal motivations matter in respect to opportunity.  Equating opportunity with achievement is a fallacy!  We can be equal in respect to the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of socio-economic background, but we need to allow each person to achieve as he or she is able, and not have the government seek to impose achievement by government control. In the process of implementing increased government control in the name of equal opportunity, we have created a “miserable rut,” as J. Gresham Machen suggested seventy-five years ago!

by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, Box 751, Lavonia, Georgia 30553, 706-356-4173, joerenfro@alltel.net

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