Monday, May 14th, 2007

Has MLK's "dream" been realized? - Education

Yes, it has been realized, all ethnic groups have raised their education level and how many children or adults to school. Although Blacks have the lowest education rate and whites have the highest, Hispanics have made the great leap from 4,263,000 in 1980 to 11,679,000 in 2003. The enrollment rate for African Americans though has gone up incredibly fast, passing the enrollment rate for Whites.

But in order to achieve Martin Luther King's dream we have to keep the students in school in order to graduate. For all races, in 1960, the graduate rate has gone up from 39.5% to now, 84.8% for males; for females it has gone up from 42.5% to 85.4% in high schools. For African Americans it has gone up from 18.2% to 80.4% for males and 21.8% to 80.6% for females. Asian and Pacific Islanders has always been extremely high always being in the high 70th percentile to the low 90th percentile since the 1990's.

Even though these are all good things, women and African Americans and Hispanics are still deprived from a full salary even though they would have the same education a white man. The average American Caucasian man could be making $46,114 while a Caucasian female would be making $28, 591. An African American male would be making $32,545 and female would be making $25,735. A Hispanic male would be making $28,806 while a female would be making $21,391.

So overall, King's dreams have been realized in some ways and not in other ways. The ways that they have been realized is that many more people, of all races, go to school today. The ways that they haven't been realized is that different races or sexes make a different amount of money for doing the same job with the same education. This isn't just a small difference, it is huge. So while only half of King's dream is being realized, the people of America are doing a great job putting together his dream.