The U.S. Education Secretary John B King Jr has been a proponent of classroom diversity since day one. His message is simple: Diversity in the classroom and within educator ranks leads to better results. With the recent growth in the young minority population, statistics are on King’s side. As noted in previous articles, multiple research studies suggest students of color benefit from a teacher that reflects their gender and race. They also benefit from a diverse classroom, learning basic principles with people of different ethnicities. Unfortunately only 18% of teachers are people of color and achieving the necessary classroom diversity can be hard due to resident location.
A pending Congress Bill entitled “The Stronger School Diversity Act of 2016” is looking to help diversity evolve however. The Bill will allocate $120 million “to provide planning and implementation grants to support voluntary local efforts to increase socioeconomic and racial diversity in schools.” Simply put, the Bill will support local school systems to help them cater to a wider audience including students outside their locality. This includes funding for textbooks, teachers, planning, transportation and more.
The main idea is to grant students more options when selecting a school. Limiting a person’s options in any decision is never good. This Bill is the first step to widening the net for students and diversity.
