Dear Next President,

The purpose of education is to teach and inform the new generation the history, science, and workings of our world, and how to implement it into our life. But there are limited resources for the teachers to educate their students, starting with the teachers themselves. Schools are losing teachers, leading to bigger class sizes, less one on one help, and the budget for each student getting smaller.

I am not one of those people that has a problem with education, but I know many schools near me that have a reputation of being a “bad place”. My school has less than 450 people in total, and we have formed a very tight community where our graduation rates are higher and more people retain information, because we have a personal connection with all of our teachers, and we are encouraged to seek help from the teachers. And the teachers gladly give us help, even on personal issues.

The problem is funding. More of the taxes we give to the government should go to the educating than to defence, military, or science. We have saved money by switching to computers and found other creative ideas because of the lack of funding, but sometimes we want certain materials that we or teachers can’t afford like programs that cost money, and materials to do labs in class. In the Seattle Times says “Researchers generally agree that lower class sizes, at least in the earliest grades, are linked to positive educational benefits such as better test scores, fewer dropouts and higher graduation rates, especially for disadvantaged children”. If we had more teachers to reduce class sizes and provide better, engaging learning, the students would be focused on learning than doing on other things like violence and crimes. It will cut down on the need to have defense on the streets, because of people trying to survive because of dropouts and having no high school education, because they were not able to get help to learn.

If we had more funding for teachers salaries, more people will consider teaching a career choice. We would be able to afford more field trips and the teachers would be happier getting enough money out of what they put in. They will get students to to love learning and get into college and work and live when they get out of school. If we had more support to help the schools that aren’t doing well, then we might be able to cut down on on the violence the streets.

According to Peter G. Peterson Foundation, nearly 50% of the money goes to the defense and military for new technology and protecting our government. But the money should be going to the safety and learning directly of the young generation’s schooling and education. I urge you to increase the funding for the schools, to cut down on spending for the defense and military, and to help protect the next generation by adding more teachers and support for the schools. Spend 30% of the money from taxes to help students learn and help teachers teach. It would help our country have better education and will give people better lives.

Thank you,

Jolene M., New Technology High School, Napa.