@xiggi First of all, no one is playing the poor card. When we have millions of illegal immigrants that come to the country that do not speak English, and are still entitled to a free public education, we place an undue burden on our education system. Taxpayer money ceases to go to bettering the education of our students and potentially making the public Univeristy schools, cheaper, and instead goes to sustaining programs that help for example teach English to these kids. I very familiar with how the public school system works, and the amount of money and resources allotted to ESL kids and to programs that give these kids resources, is almost unparalleled. English is not my first language, but I was lucky to have parents that encouraged me to begin reading at an early age and taught me two languages at once. And I understand many children are not priveleged with this. I can only speak for the state I live in, but our state definitely does more than enough the promote a better education for minorities and schools in minority neighborhoods. For example, all of the district funding for public schools is allotted to low performing schools. My school is one of the best public schools in the city (and one of the most diverse), and we practically get no funding. Our parent organizations do more for us than the district. However, all the rest of the low performing schools have AstroTurf football fields that cost millions of dollars to install, have iPad programs for their students, have smaller class sizes, and actually get to have whiteboards instead of chalkboards in their room while my school is asking parents to donate paper for printing. In addition public univeristy EOP programs, affirmative action (or whatever politically correct name you hVe for it), and other programs are definitely in place for minority communities. Thus I would hardly say our country is neglecting minority communities. A large part of the problem is the communities that children are being raised in. If their is a culture where dropping out of school, joining gangs (i am talking about all races and nationalities here), and generally having unsupportive parents, then it should not be a mystery why the education system is not working for many people.
Once again, it is incorrect to compare the United States to Luxembourg or any homogenous country. Luxembourg has a significantly smaller population to account for, and let’s not forget about the average income there compared to the average income here. Let’s not forget that they do not have a rapidly increasing population fueled by the influx of immigrants. However, if you do want to look to Europe, another reason why the public education system is very successful there is because of the vocational education options. Students who do not wish to partake or are not equipped for a traditional education go down the vocational path starting with middle school. Instead of failing out of school, they have a pathway where they can make a very sustainable and dare I say very good salary.
Our policies with Native Americans have been abysmal. They have been so underwhelmingly represent in politics and in the US population, that their plight often remains ignored. More often than not, they do not go to regular public schools and instead go to the schools on their reservation. It is very easy to say the United States failed minorities because make no mistake about it, we did for the majority of our countries history. But now, at the risk of being called a racist, I think some minority communities are failing themselves. Not even 100 years ago, the Asians were considered at the very bottom of the society, a step above the Jews and the African Americans. They were basically send to live in small minority communities (now known as Chinatown) and faced almost unimaginable discrimination. The Japanese population were even rounded up in internment camps. However, despite that, the Asian community managed to prevail (im speaking in general here) despite facing similar amounts of discrimination. We’re they disadvantaged for being Asian? Yes. Was it harder for them because they weren’t WASPS? Yes. And now that I mentioned the Jews, they were the lowest of the low along with black people in terms of minority subjugation. The KKK targeted Jews and blacks equally. Jews experienced rampant segregation in the South. FDR the apparent champion of civil rights was one of the most anti Semetic presidents of our time. But look at the Jewish community now. Change will not happen until certain minority communities admit that yes the United States isn’t perfect and we will continue fighting until it is better and more fair. But at the same time, they will need to evolve and that starts with education.