Children Deserve Better than Devos

When I heard that Betsy Devos had been confirmed for the Secretary of Education, my heart sank. I am a public education advocate through and through, and I fundamentally believe that everyone, regardless of disability status or parent’s income level, deserves to have equal educational opportunities.

Simply put, Devos is not the champion I had hoped for - she’s a champion for wealthy, white students who have the money to choose and I wanted a champion for everyone.

I know it’s a harsh statement, but I’m incredibly disappointed and quite frankly we don’t have the time to sugarcoat words when there’s so much at stake. We are quite literally in the middle of an educational crisis, and Devos is not the solution.

Currently, our public education system is flawed and deeply unequal....where you live and how much money your parents make determines the quality of your education.

Let’s break this down:

Education (formally) begins with pre-school. However, there is no national pre-school requirement, so as a result pre-school is offered privately. This means that - right off the very bat - children who are wealthy get a head start on their education, while those who can’t afford pre-school fall behind. Research backs this up.

This means that there is an achievement gap before children even enter the doors of kindergarten.

So, what happens when a child goes to public school?

Well, it depends on where they live and how much money their parents make. This is because public school education is partially funded by property taxes...In other words, if a town or city is wealthy, then a lot of money will go into their town’s public school. If a town or city is poor, less money will go into public education.

So, this means that the quality of education varies place by place. If a student lives in a white, wealthy suburb their education is likely going to be fantastic with great teachers and extracurricular programs. But, if a student lives in a predominantly of color inner city, their education is most likely going to consist of too large class sizes, not enough teachers, a depressing building in need of new infrastructure, not enough materials, less AP classes offered, and more (Don’t believe me? Read Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol or do some research for yourself. A great place to start is right here).

Breaking it down even more, this means that white, wealthier students have better educational opportunities than students of color in inner cities.

And I didn’t even address health disparities (Fifty percent or more of minority and low-income children have vision problems that interfere with their academic work), nutrition disparities, sexual harassment disparities, leadership opportunity disparities, and so much more.

This trend of inequality due to financial situations continues as students get older. Let’s consider the students who make it through high school and want to apply to college. In order to apply, they’re going to need to take some standardized tests. Yet, to do well, they must have money because taking the tests are expensive, as are tutors, classes, and textbooks to assist with studying.

Then, it goes without saying that college requires an enormous amount of money in order to attend...leaving behind individuals who can’t afford it.

In so many ways, our current system of education, which is intertwined with money, sets up white, wealthy children for success and lower income students of color for the opposite...

It stuns me, that we allow communities of color in inner cities to suffer in ways that we simply would never allow white communities to. I want you to consider what would happen if white students were consistently reading and performing mathematical tasks at an 8th grade level at the age 18...instead of at a 12th grade level. What would happen?! There would be uproar!! Everyone would freak out over America not being globally competitive and say that we’re ‘falling behind’.

Yet, America is falling behind. Black and Latino individuals are part of this country, and we are failing them. Studies show that “By the end of fourth grade, African American, Latino, and poor students of all races are two years behind behind their wealthier, predominantly white peers in reading and math. By eighth grade, they have slipped three years behind, and by twelfth grade, four years behind.”

I feel sick thinking about the injustice of it all. How much money your parents have should not determine your chance at success - that feels so fundamentally wrong.

Let’s tie it together though: After all these problems, you might be wondering...why don’t we invest in choice, if public school is failing so many? After all, sometimes choice really does work - take Geoffrey Canada or Nadia Lopez - two fantastically inspiring individuals and some of my education heroes.

I have two important reasons:

1. Public education has the ability to be phenomenal. I am a public school product, and know how truly extraordinary it can be - when there is funding, brilliant teachers, a good infrastructure, an appropriate number of materials, enough staff members, and more. The reason why I started a company at age 16, why I ran a summer program at age 18, and why I published a book at 19 was in part due to the fantastic and supportive teachers and administrators at my school. I am forever grateful to them, and believe that ALL students deserve the kind of educational quality I was fortunate enough to receive. Public education truly can be a solution, if ALL students are invested in the way I was.

1. Perhaps, most importantly, only wealthy, typically white people have the opportunity to choose. For inner city communities, there is usually no choice. They are stuck with public education...which is lower quality than the education children receive in the suburbs, because less money goes into it. And this is why we must reform and invest in public education, rather than leaving behind those who can’t afford to pay for a better alternative.

I fundamentally believe that we are at our best when every single individual is given the opportunity to succeed. And through public education, we can give children that opportunity.

Betsy Devos, given your history and the power of your position, I am terrified. I pray that you will take this position seriously, and you will actually take the time to learn about things like disability acts. And in the mean time, I’m going to do everything I can to learn and fight for the rights of children everywhere....and so far, my major ‘Empowerment Through Education’ combined with a Political Science double major is setting me up pretty well to do so. Truly, we can only go up from here.