Dear Future President,

School teachers across America work extremely hard to educate their students every day. I have heard a lot about how hard it is being a teacher these days, that it’s a lot harder than it used to be. I started to wonder, why is it so much harder to be a teacher? After doing some research, I discovered why. It’s because of education reforms. Teachers work hard to educate America's future leaders, but our current education system makes this a major struggle. With a rise of countrywide criteria, things such as standardized tests and meetings have kept teachers from adequate planning time, and has increased stress.

Since ESSA was signed in 2015, the education system has changed a lot. Teachers are now required to do a lot more paperwork than they used to. As you can guess, this takes away from planning time, which leads to poor education. ESSA was supposed to make there be “less, more effective assessments.” Since it was signed in 2015, we have only had more. These standardized tests force teachers to spend more time reviewing with students. Again, less learning time. Teachers are also given deadlines for when things should be taught. Not every student in the United States learn at the same speed. This causes many problems.

Kids who aren’t up to grade level by middle school almost never catch up. This is a serious problem because of the deadlines for when things should be taught. This puts a lot of stress on teachers, especially when they know they will be evaluated. When teachers are evaluated, and so many of their students are failing, they may feel as if they are not doing good at their job. These students will be left in the dust, and never catch up again.

When president Obama signed ESSA, many people believed it could fix damage done to the education system previously. Since it was signed, teachers have been held at higher expectations than ever before. Because the act was meant to help “every student succeed,” teachers are required to do a lot more work to keep track of their students progress. Standardized tests, which are also used to evaluate students, can give inaccurate results, and teachers are held accountable when their students don’t do well. Although it was supposed to help the education system, ESSA has only made things worse.

Future president, it is up to you to fix these problems. Education is important, but we need someone to take action and make the education system better. I believe this is a problem you can fix, and if you do, you will change so many people's lives.

Sincerely,

Tyson B.