Brayden

Guthrie High School

10-29-16

Dear Future President,

What is your stance on education? Coming from a family where both of my parents are involved in public education, my Mom being a counselor at the upper elementary school in Guthrie, Oklahoma, my Dad is the discipline principle at the high school here in Guthrie. So as you can imagine I am definitely in support for public education, I like they way we are going with it by how we are not completely changing everything but instead we are constantly adding improvements to increase graduation rates and preparing kids for society. Such as making our food decisions for school lunches more healthy. And having school activities which offer lunch for free and reduced lunch kids. But I have a few ideas what we could do to improve public education even more maybe like; we could have community service that improves our school and in exchange for the students working they can get lunch in return. This would especially help the kids who are on free and reduced lunch, Ideas to encourage kids to be more active in school activities, and giving teachers a raise. Things like this add up.

“We just needed someone who believed in us” said the art teacher Jeff Arnold, talking about the superintendent who has drastically improved their school district by getting up graduation percentage up to around 36 percent. Anderson even is a crossing guard for the students at 7am and 3pm “How do we know the needs of the community if you’re not in the community?” She said. On the Holidays Student and Families wait in line to pick up canned goods like fresh vegetables and a Turkey. Someone who does not only her job but other teachers’ jobs as well and at such a successful rate clearly deserves a raise.

In “U. S high school graduation rate bumps up to 82%” the article talks about how we have improved graduation rate in past few years, “A new wake-up call” is what John Bridgeland, head of the group Center Enterprises. The article explains that at the rate we are moving high school graduation will be up to 90% by the year 2020, that’s 9 out of 10 people! It seems that since we are adding more school activities the students are becoming more involved which I believe is increasing graduation rates. We are heading in the right direction with the right plan we just need to be patient.

In an article talking about how Mrs. Obama tries improve school lunches, making them much healthier by taking away unhealthy food and replacing them with healthier food. We all know that eating healthier can improve physical health but it can also improve mental health. So why not bring healthier food into our schools? That’s exactly what Mrs. Obama did, some kids eat Breakfast and lunch at the school. So if it is healthy for us then what’s the problem? The only problem with it is that the size of the meal has been cut down compared to what is use to be. In communities like ours it simply isn't enough for kids, what they eat at school is all they eat because there's no food at home. What they eat will have to hold them over until their next meal at school. We should keep the healthy meals but increase the portion, so kids don't go home hungry and when they are in school they aren't thinking about how hungry they are. When the portions go up productivity goes up!

They’re many reasons our teachers should get a pay raise, one of them being they are putting up with kids for 7 to 8 hours out of the day. Teachers are constantly around these kids preparing them for the real world and to contribute to society. As well as building a connection with each and every student so that the student may feel comfortable in their learning environment. This often gets overlooked because we just think the teacher's job is to educate and that's it. As well as having a positive influence on the student so that they may be successful in whatever it is they do beyond school. Another reason teachers deserve a raise is that they are always attending extracurricular activities to support their students and to show themselves to the public more often. Teachers are encouraged to be more active in the communities which is a whole another task itself. Maybe the most important reason educators deserve a bigger paycheck is these people have a college education, they have attended and finish college where they have been educated on how to be successful in teaching their future students. Most teachers have to pay off student loans for many years into their career. If you think about it teachers starting salary is very low and right out of college their student loans are sky-high, if we raise the average salary particularly in the first couple years in the teacher’s contract it will help get them going and pay off college debt. Teachers have to put up with a lot more than we think.

In conclusion I believe we should give teachers in public schools a raise, increase the portions of school meals, and become more involved in school activities as well as have more school activities. I feel like these are key factors that if we included it would not only help graduation rate but the teacher and have a positive impact on the communities. We are heading in right direction with public education we just need to keep making improvements by changing little things and looking at what is working for these schools with high graduation rates and implementing them into schools across the country. Even though each school is different the impact is the same! Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read my letter and view my stance on education. I hope you may considers some of my ideas!

With Respect,

Brayden

Work Cited

By. “U.S. High School Graduation Rate bumps up to 82 Percent, Report Says.” Newsela. Washington Post, 24 Dec. 2015. Web. 31. Oct. 2016.

By. “Superintendent Meets Needs Beyond Classroom to Help Poor Kids Succeed .Newsela. N.p., 24 Dec. 2015. Web. 31 Oct. 2016

By. “Mrs. Obama Battles for Healthy School Lunches: Congress Agrees on Bill.” Newsela N.p., 26 Jan. 2016. Web. 31. Oct. 2016