Dear Future President,

I strongly think high poverty schools aren't given as many chances to succeed compared to schools that are more fortunate. When trying to get a good education, it’s easy to run into barriers. There are many ways to overcome these struggles but we need the help from you. Children, teenagers, and even adults who live in poverty run into a vast amount of stress every day when it comes to their education. According to Huffington Post, there are 32 million adults in the U.S. alone who are unable to read.

There are many reasons as to why schools who are in underprivileged communities struggle more. Just thirty years ago America was one of the leaders in the number of high school graduates, now we are ranked thirty-sixth, says the NCFES. We have had a drastic decrease in the number of literate Americans and we need to bring this descend to a halt. High schools today are not preparing their students for what they need, to be able to continue on into the next chapters of their lives. According to DOSomething.org, only 1 in every 4 students has the knowledge and grades to graduate college prepared, in all 4 core subjects. How can we fix this? The teacher's knowledge is just as important as student knowledge, and we must have a way to achieve both. Many of the teachers who have jobs at underprivileged schools are not trained properly for what they have to work with. Many teachers and students mistreat the fact that there are kids in their communities, and even school who are the mother figure of the family or do not live in full parental care. Kids who live these ways are having to deal with the stress of their school and after school life.

That’s where it feeds into behavior, some of these children do not have the teaching of how to act in environments outside of their homes. These kids are immediately disciplined when just more harm is done. According to Chris Hawkins writing in his book “teaching with poverty in mind”, he says that as he continues to teach as a history teacher he has learned how to interact with the different groups of kids. He says “there is far more behind the aggressive behaviors, commonly attributed to the lack of politeness.” It is most common that kids from a low-income household are treated with discipline and over stressed because this is how the parents were interacted with as a child too. Kids who look different from the common everyday student are looked upon differently based on their needs.

Public schooling was created to give a fair learning environment to everyone. This is still a problem, that we as American’s need to improve. People may say that fundings provided by the government are given out in equal grants but this is a false claim. The Education Leadership Journal published a piece in 2002, that stated: “poor schools often get less money in state funds and grants than wealthier schools”. This is true nicer schools have more resources such as better facilities, technology, newer books, etc. Some students are unable to access these resources outside of school which is why I think that they should be provided in school. A detail from the website All About American Education, states that 97% of low-income students rely on school for internet access, but 40 million students do not have high-speed Internet in school. Here is an excerpt from an article in TheNYTimes that gives the story just like millions of other students and me, but these students in particular face hardships every day.

-“Isabella, 11, and Tony, 12, were outside the school because they have no Internet service at home — and connectivity is getting harder. With their mother, Maria, out of work for months and money coming only from their father, Isaias, who washes dishes, the family had cut back on almost everything, including their cellphone data plan. So every weeknight, the siblings stood outside the low-slung school, sometimes for hours, to complete homework for the sixth grade.”

I come to you to say America is a very successful country in many ways but has flaws as well. Millions of students do not receive the education, treatment, or technology compared to higher income schools that they are in dire need of. I understand you may feel that the problem has been solved by chipping in a little more money here and there and redistricting to have an equal IQ rate at schools. In the long term, it has made no change. It happens in my own county, schools on the west side of have scored 8 points lower on the ACT and 390 points lower on the SAT, with a school rank gap from 17th to 476th in NC with information supported by Niche. A solution I give to you is that you grant these schools with; more state money so that they are able to pay for more laptops, better quality of items and facilities, and the knowledge of teachers to expand and get the proper training. Overall I feel that this will make the United States of America a more successful, stress less environment to support the people. I don’t expect this to be an issue solved overnight but I do hope you take into consideration the education of the families with less. As we applaud you to being granted such a high rank I hope you take this serious issue into consideration for change.

Sincerely,

Emma

Citations

Team, Niche. "West Charlotte High School." Charlotte Metro Area. Niche, n.d.

Web. 17 Sept. 2016.

Jensen, Eric. "Teaching with Poverty in Mind." ASCD. N.p., 2009.

Web. 22 Sept. 2016

Thompson, Van. "Seattle Pi." Seattle Pi. Hearst Seattle Media, 2016.

Web. 22 Sept. 2016

"11 Facts About Education in America." DoSomething.org. N.p., n.d.

Web. 22 Sept. 2016.

Messmore, Ryan. "Justice, Inequality, and the Poor Publications National Affairs." National Affairs. Justice, Inequality, and the Poor, n.d.

Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

Camera, Lauren. "High School Seniors Aren't Ready for College." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 27 Apr. 2016.

Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

"Literacy Project Foundation." Statistics. Literacy Project Foundation, n.d.

Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

Kang, Cecilia. "Bridging a Digital Divide That Leaves Schoolchildren Behind."The New York Times.

The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

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@NEAToday. "Isolation of Black and Latino Students in High-Poverty Schools Is Growing - NEA Today." NEA Today.

Students and Social Issues, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.