Education and State-Sanctioned Violence
The importance of education in a democracy can be measured from multiple perspectives, with those failing representing an opportunity lost with immediate and long-term ramifications. In global and technologically driven economies, education has ascended in significance to a point where a high school diploma is no longer a ticket to the middle class. Public education is a linchpin in the ultimate career success of students, with much expected of a system occupying such a prominent and extended period in their lives, daily and during key developmental phases. This chapter covers the usual urban public education and communities of color terrain. However, two pipelines will draw particular attention—school-to-prison and school-to-military—with an extension to include prison, too, highlighting state-sanctioned violence.