Government responses to inequality

• ESSA

  Every Student Succeeds Act, introduced to tackle educational inequality replacing No Child Left Behind
• ESSA

  1. Gives states and districts more say over education

  2. Requires schools to provide evidence of students test performance, graduation rates and funding information

  3. States can intervene in lowest performing schools e.g closing them
• The US Department of Education says that graduation rates rose by 84% following the year of ESSA's implementation
• ESSA fails to address the root issues that cause inequality within the education system such as college tuition fees
• Schools had to close due to underperformance

  • The city of Chicago closed 50 elementary schools which impacted 14,000 children
• Smarter Sentencing Act introduced

  2015
• Smarter Sentencing Act

  • Aimed to reduce the prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders
  • Reduced the sentences of 8,000 prisoners, 80% of which were black
  • In 2018, the imprisonment rate was at its lowest in the last two decades
• There is still a major inequality gap in the way people get sent to prison
• Pew Research states that black people are 3.4 times more likely to be incarcerated than white people
• Despite the Smarter Sentencing Act narrowing the gap in imprisonment for all races, the racial inequality of the American prison system still continues to affect black communities
• Obama Care

  Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 (ACA)
• ACA

  Federal program that provides health insurance to low-income people
• The ACA has seen success as it 16 Million people obtained health insurance within the first 5 years of its introduction
• The ACA has especially helped those in the poorest and older communities as it made prescription drugs more affordable
• ACA savings on prescription drugs

  • By 2017 the ACA saved $26.8 Billion on the prescription of drugs
• Many Americans, notably Republicans, object to tax raises in order to fund the ACA
• Despite the ACA making health insurance a legal requirement, 7.9% of the US population is still uninsured in 2022
• Federal Minimum Wage introduced

  1938
• Federal Minimum Wage

  Aims to tackle poverty and income inequality by providing a baseline income for those lowest paid, currently it is $7.25
• Federal Minimum Wage

  • Especially protects employees in low paid sectors such as shop work, catering and people on zero hour contracts
• Federal Minimum Wage has seen success in decreasing child poverty rates
• Child poverty rate was 23%


  1996
• Child poverty rate is now 16%


  2022
• Others could argue that the Federal Minimum Wage doesn't pay enough
• Pew Research found that 12.5% of US population had to claim SNAP in 2022
• Different states offer different minimum wages which causes income inequality between states
• Some states have a federal minimum wage of $15