Equal Educational Opportunity free essay sample

Examines theories on evolving responsibility of society to reduce learning differences based on ethnic, racial socioeconomic realities. Education is a positive right, to which children should have equal opportunity and access. Therefore, all public schools should spend roughly the same amount per student. The outcomes of these expenditures, however, depend on a variety of factors. Nevertheless, equal educational opportunity is critical to the maintenance of a democratic society. Education benefits society because it is viewed as a means to enable citizens to achieve happiness and morality. Thomas Jefferson believed that instruction would enable the citizen to safeguard his or her own liberties: Guided by a knowledge of history and the reading of newspapers, the individual would exercise reason and moral common sense to make political decisions (Spring, 1990,p. 45). In Jeffersons viewpoint, equal educational opportunity was necessary to promote natural order in