debt is the “foregone schooling resources that we could have (should have) been investing in (primarily) low income kids, which deficit leads to a variety of social problems (e.g. crime, low productivity, low wages, low labor force participation) that require on-going public investment”. The education debt theory has historical, economic, sociopolitical and moral components. Historical component Historical debt is the concept of inequality throughout history that has prevented equal education of minorities. Inequities surrounding education throughout history have been designed to prevent people based on their race, class, and gender from receiving quality education. It was prohibited by law in many places across the United States, specifically the south, for African Americans to attend school. As a cause of this lack of education, there were extremely high rate of illiteracy in the African-American community following the Civil War. Similarly, the Native American population was prevented from obtaining a quality education. After forced labor and genocides, the remaining population was funneled into boarding schools focused on religious teachings and assimilation into European culture. Latino/as were also denied equal education. In the case Mendez vs. West Minister, Latino fathers challenged the courts as their children, and thousands of others, were victims of racial segregation. The falsity that African Americans were unable to be educated was endorsed by Thomas Jefferson, even though he supported the idea of education for all American people. Economic component Economic debt has greatly accumulated from the disparities in school funding. Even after it was deemed unconstitutional for education to be withheld on the basis of race, legislation regarding the allocation of money for public schools was passed regardless of the fact that it left minority school districts with significantly less money than predominantly white school districts. The concept of separate but equal, made constitutional by Plessy vs. Ferguson, allowed a significant of amount of funding disparity between school districts to be perpetuated. Ladson-Billings also points to the fact that higher level of income is related to a higher level of education. The average white student completes college at a school that spends over $11,000 per student, while the average Black student completes college at a school that spends under $10,000 per student. Sociopolitical component Sociopolitical debt “is the degree to which communities of color are excluded from the civic process” (Ladson-Billings 2006). Disenfranchisement of voting rights contributed to and continues to contribute to sociopolitical debt. African American, Latino,