Our Unequal Education System-Maya Creamer

It’s the first day of freshman year, the beginning of the next chapter of your life. It should be a time of celebration, of excitement. But when you walk through the front doors of the school, all you feel is anxiety. You know that you probably won’t finish high school. “Kids like you”, who come from families with lineages filled with high-school dropouts, who attend “dropout factories” where more than 40% of kids never earn their diplomas, don’t stand a chance. What’s the point of working hard, earning good grades, and getting involved if you’ll most likely be gone before you even reap the rewards? You feel like giving up, and you haven’t even reached first period.

         The situation I have just described is all too common in the United States. There are children and teenagers across the country who are trapped in this country’s education system, a system built for adolescents with advantages. To succeed, you need the support of your family, the ability to remain focused on your studies. You have to pick up material quickly, and possess not only the motivation to work towards your goals, but the knowledge that you can succeed. Everyone in this room is lucky enough to have been born into these circumstances. We have families that support us, and friends who want us to succeed. We go to a school where we are given the tools that we need for success, and taught how to use them. Unfortunately, many kids in the United States aren’t so lucky.

         The United States has a dropout rate of about 25%, and a population of about 73,000,000 adolescents; according to this statistic, over 18,000,000 of these kids won’t earn their diplomas. Our national education system promises “No Child Left Behind”, so why is it that so many of our youth get left behind and end up dropping out? Is it because they think that at age 16 they have already learned enough? Or, is it just the opposite-because they feel that our education system has failed them? I suspect that if you asked most high school dropouts, they would say the latter. Success in school is based on the ability to regurgitate learned information onto a piece of paper come test time; for students who struggle to do this, school is a nightmare. When you’re penalized for doing something wrong and only rewarded for spouting off the correct answer, it’s easy to get discouraged. School has become a competition to see who’s the “smartest”, one that an increasing number of students feel they are failing at.        

         This feeling of failure is devastating, both for each particular student and the world we live in. A high school diploma is a ticket to success in the real world. For many high school dropouts, it is nearly impossible to advance in the workforce; most will get stuck in entry-level positions, unable to earn a promotion because of their lack of a diploma. They are also at a disadvantage when it comes to salaries. A high school graduate makes an average of $28,000 a year, compared to the $19,000 salary of a high school dropout. That’s an almost 50% increase in earnings, all because of one piece of paper. That piece of paper could be the difference between the ability to support a family and falling below the poverty line; twice as many high school dropouts live below the poverty line than their peers with a high school diploma.

         This is awful, isn’t it? Now, don’t get me wrong, there have been many steps taken to try to improve our education system. Unfortunately, many of these measures have not been nearly as successful as people hoped.

         Charter schools and specialized programs like the Academy are a rising trend in the United States to combat our steadily decreasing academic success. However, I see a real problem with these programs. Pitting kids against each other in a ruthless admissions process often based on a simple lottery, making sure that only the smartest kids are eligible, and using taxpayers’ hard-earned money to guarantee the success of the select few lucky enough to be admitted doesn’t exactly sound like an effective plan to me. What about all those kids who are unable to pass the admissions test to enter these programs, or who aren’t chosen in the random lottery? Or those who are chosen to attend charter schools, but come from low-income families that can’t afford to pay upwards of $10,000 per year in tuition? They deserve a quality education as well!

         The question is, how do we guarantee an equal education for everyone? We can’t change America’s education system overnight, and motivating millions of kids to stay in school is a daunting task. However, we can get the ball rolling. If we start to encourage change at the local level, we are contributing to the eventual change of our entire national system. If you notice educational inequality occurring at Henry Clay, speak up. Talk to Mr. Quenon, or write the school board. They do listen to what we have to say, and despite the way it may seem, they genuinely want to do what’s best for the students. I believe that when the way the system works is changed to better serve the needs of all students, we will see a dramatic decrease in the number of high school dropouts.

         Also, probably even more importantly, remember how lucky we are.

We don’t live in a city like Chicago or Philadelphia, where poor urban neighborhoods feed into overcrowded, underfunded inner-city schools filled with kids who have no motivation to finish high school. We tested into the Liberal Arts Academy, a program that allows us incredible academic opportunities. We are surrounded by teachers and peers who want us to succeed and are willing to help us achieve our goals, and this environment breeds not only success and good grades, but a desire to work hard and become successful. We will all graduate high school, and most of us will go to college; we know that graduating from high school and attending a good college is the best way to start ourselves down the path to success.

         The difference between our educational experience and that of many students in the United States simply because of our circumstances is unfair. Yes, we may have earned our spot in the Academy through our test scores and yes, I believe that we deserve the academic opportunities we receive. But doesn’t every kid deserve to learn as much as they can in school, and be started down the path to success? There are many kids who are just as intelligent as us, but the current unequal state of the United States education system doesn’t allow them any opportunity to put that intelligence to good use. Remember this, and don’t let the fact that we have had an unequal share of educational opportunities become an excuse for intolerance.

         As Malcolm London, a young poet, activist and educator who grew up in the Chicago public school system, said in his poem entitled “High School Training Ground”, “I open the doors to a building dedicated to building, yet only breaks me down… labels like ‘regulars’ and ‘honors’ resonate…This is a training ground, to sort out ‘regulars’ from the ‘honors’.” He was an ‘honors’, as is everyone in this room. He came out on top, just like we will be lucky enough to do. But this does not give us the right to judge those who come out below us. We are built by our circumstances, and luckily for us, our circumstances are conducive to success. But others aren’t so lucky. Just as they don’t deserve to be denied a good education, they don’t deserve to be judged by those who entered this system with the advantage. Our education system does not benefit everyone equally, but we can change that, and make sure that it doesn’t prevent everyone from being treated equally by their peers. Everyone has potential; some kids just aren’t given an equal chance to let that potential blossom into success.

Works Cited:

- Duncan, Arne. "Interview with Education Secretary Arne Duncan." Interview by Jon Meacham. PBS Video. KET, 25 Mar. 2011. Web. 28 June 2014.

- Foster, Anne. "Time for detente between charter and traditional public schools." Phi Delta Kappan 95: 18-23. Web. 25 June 2014.

- High School Training Ground. Perf. Malcolm London. TED Talks Education. PBS, May 2013. Web. 28 June 2014.

- Swallow, Erica. "Creating Innovators: Why America's Education System Is Obsolete." Forbes. N.p., 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 28 June 2014

- Waiting for "Superman". Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2011. DVD.