Free Lunches and English Educational Inequality

  "In life, there is no such thing as a free lunch."

     Last night, I attended a lecture hosted by Beyond Profit, a social entrepreneurship club. Beyond Profit works on business initiatives which combine social good and economic profit. This type of initiative is working to meet the disparate and often conflicting drive of individuals of this generation. The concept uses business principles for socially beneficial ends. As the Beyond Profit mantra goes: "There are people who want to save the world and there are people who want great personal success. Nowadays most of us want to try and do both. Beyond Profit is the place to find out how to achieve this." Because of my desire to make Bridges Through Education Corporation self-sustaining, I decided to become active within the club and to learn from those with more experience and knowledge.

   This night's event covered educational inequalities within Great Britain. The program was sponsored by Beyond Profit, yet it was presented by Alex Spiers of Teach First, the UK equivalent of Teach for America. Of note, the program does not receive the same philanthropic funding that its compatriot in the U.S. receives. Its funding comes from the state, donors (corporate/private), and schools. Money is exchanged for the service of providing high caliber teachers, but the business board receives only one pound per year. The program offers the opportunity to teach in comprehensive schools in which at least 50% of students fall into the low income range within the UK. Unlike the U.S. educational construct, all individuals who attain a bachelor’s degree may become teachers through hands-on student experience (the equivalent of student teaching in the U.S.). Education majors do not exist in the UK. Thus, a program like Teach First faces less institutional push-back as 50% of the individuals who work in the program continue teaching at the end of their one year commitment. No additional education is required. With the merits of the different methodologies and qualifications aside, the program targets the issue of educational inequality within the UK.

      Educational disadvantage is about more than someone being "lucky." In this era, it is despicable that family affluence remains a primary determinant of children’s educational and career outcomes. Education impacts the entire life span of an individual not just childhood, but as time progresses, the divergence between the well-education and the poorly educated is accentuated. 17% of UK individuals ages 16-24 years old are NEET (Not in education, employment, or training). From a fiscal standpoint, it costs the central government and more directly, the taxpayers, 35 billion pounds per annum ($55-$60 billion U.S. dollars). In addition to the financial burden, this issue creates long-term negative externalities: prolonged unemployment, lower income, depression, mental health issues, and alcoholism. These phenomena are the logical bedfellows of poor educational outcomes.

     In the UK, data collection and analysis is excellent. One study analyzed the differential in school readiness between the rich and poor. At the age of three years old, the rich already possess a one year advantage in terms of behavior. At the age of 5, the gap in vocabulary development between the rich and poor is 15 months, which continues to widen over time. In terms of socioeconomic differences, 27% of students receiving free lunches (need based food programs) achieve the required scores on the GSCE (Proficiency or Graduation Test Equivalent) to continue onto A-Level, which is the university preparatory curriculum. In comparison, 54% of students who do not receive free lunch achieve this standard. The disparity is even greater when one compares comprehensive schools (public schools) and independent schools (charter/private schools). At Age 11, 93% of UK students attend comprehensive state schools and only 7% attend independent schools. At Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge), 54% attended comprehensive state schools and 46% attended independent schools. Only 43 out of the 600,000 students per year on free school lunches in the United Kingdom are currently continuing their studies at Oxbridge. The statistics speak for themselves: affluence provides opportunities which are not otherwise enjoyed by the poor.

   Teach First works to counter this startling trend by turning exceptional graduates into inspirational educators and leaders who work to overcome educational disadvantage and educational inequality. The program targets schools with a large underprivileged population and schools with underperforming teachers. Interestingly, "performance" evaluation of teachers is on a value-added basis. Based upon post code and family income, models clearly predict academic performance on the GSCE. If the student performs better than their surroundings suggest and their predicted score indicates, the teacher has had some "value-added" and is considered proficient. The program works on the concept of "micro-change" where change/improvement occurs at the local level. Individual students and groups benefit. The culture and internalization of educational stereotypes is changed within schools. At the end of the teaching obligation, teachers become eligible to be Teach First Ambassadors, which affords them the resources and mentorship required to start their own social enterprise. Thus, the program retains a strong alumni group which benefits from business and non-profit support.

   To conclude, the United Kingdom and the United States face similar challenges of educational inequality. Social mobility via educational attainment appears stunted and dysfunctional. It is the youth who suffer, both affluent and poor. The affluent neither know nor understand the nuances of poverty and struggle. The poor neither know nor understand the institutional knowledge of education. If they do, they often do not have the means to achieve the desired end. Everyone loses without socioeconomic diversity within the educational framework. Some lose more than others.