Reference no: EM132849512

Education isn't equal

While we have a public education system, that system is not equal by any means. During the Democratic National Convention in 2016, someone (I believe it was Andrew Cuomo, yeah that Andrew Cuomo) gave a speech about inequities in our education system. The person said that you can go to 2 public schools in the same district and ask the same question, "Show me your best technology" and in one school their answer will all of the iPads and Macbooks the students are doing their work on and in the other school they will show you their metal detectors. This is a systemic problem. The systematic defunding of public education is impacting lower-income communities in far more negative ways than it is higher-income communities. We hear feel-good stories about how a principal is working the night shift at the grocery store to provide students in his school with basics, or Ellen gives $50,000 to a school where the teachers were providing things like toilet paper and pencils from their own money, and somehow no one ever asks how the f*** we are in a situation where this is even possible!

Question 1: How does a school not have toilet paper?

Question 2: How do schools not have libraries or pencils or desks?! How?! These are not feel-good stories these are horror stories that can only be fixed by passing laws and policies and budgets at the state and federal levels.