Dear Future President,

I am writing this letter to talk about what I would like to happen with the cost of education. Education is a big part of what makes the U.S. what it is today, I was once told by one of my coaches for football that “Education is the only free thing you will get in life,” at a younger age I truly believed this. In my mind, knowing that I was going to school for free, kind of motivated me to want to do better with the opportunities that were handed to me. Growing up and making it to middle school and then high school only opened up eyes to show how much education really costs, and how it affects my parents' lives even more then mine.

My thinking began to progressively change over the years. I started disliking going to school everyday, waking up at six in the morning to only come home at six at night. Some of the things our school requires now is just too much for me to handle. Drivers education was of course a choice of mine to take, but in the end it took up every morning of my freshman year and two nights of the week also. I could handle getting up early and staying late after school, but what really bothered me is the cost of the class. In the end, it costs about $450 just to sign up, and if you were to somehow not complete the class you would have to repay this fee and take it again. My parents both have stable jobs and yet struggled with the fee of this class; I can only imagine what it was like for a family who was less off then my family or who had to pay for two kids in the same grade. This is just insane in my mind, and I cannot wrap my head around why a class like this needs to be so expensive.

On the first day of kindergarten, I was given a number to memorize and to use every time I went to lunch. This number was four digits long, and I would type my number into the keypad never knowing what it was really for. It took a few years, but I did finally figure out what my number was for and how much eating lunch really costs. Our lunch would consist of our main dish being four chicken nuggets and a scoop of mashed potatoes. We would then have our choice of what we wanted next, which could either be fruit, vegetables, or lettuce for a salad. Now, I understand that I get to choose how much fruit or vegetables I put on my tray, but you can only eat so much fruit. After I describe this lunch to you, how much do you think it costs? About $1.50? $1.75? You would be wrong. The lunch I pay for everyday is $3.25 and this is without getting doubles. If I were to get doubles, the price would increase another $1.50. Getting doubles was not a rarity for me, since I am an athlete and try to eat as much as I can. Paying almost $5.00 to eat lunch for one day in my mind is completely outrageous. I haven’t even mentioned the worst part of the whole deal. Our school is the only school in Iowa that makes a profit from school lunches. Just a year ago, they bought themselves a new van. Now you can’t tell me education is free when I have to pay $3.25 a day just to get four chicken nuggets.

Being the President of the United States is an absolutely huge job, and American education is just one aspect that needs improvement. My education price has only gone up over the years, and I do not see a change anywhere in sight. Making lunches free would help out the less fortunate families with one less bill to pay every month and also making a driver’s education class a lot lower in price would be ideal. Driving is something we all need to learn one day, and we should not have to pay a huge price to take a class for common driving knowledge. If these prices were to decrease, then there should not be a change in how our school functions since the money isn’t going to the school in the first place. If every other school in Iowa can go without making a profit from school lunches, then we have no reason to be any different. Making sacrifices is a part of life and to change our country for the better, I think we could all make a little change.

Sincerely

Josh G.