With Inequities in Education, Crime and Violence Will Intensify

Inequity in education is the reflection of inequity in society.

I've listened on a popular radio a question to all listeners, asking what it'll be the suggestions for President-elect Barack Obama. Ohio's Laine Alison Zalac is a graduating senior at Columbus Alternative High School and she wrote a essay which resulted as the winner of The Nation's Third Annual Student Writing Contest. She has her suggestion for upcoming 44th President of the United States.

She was focused on an issue we all know, but particularly interesting now, because it comes from a bright student in HS. Basically, what Laine argues is that until inequities in education are eliminated, a permanent underclass will continue to exist and maybe grow, who knows.

From Addressing Inequity in Education:

"In my school, we have a large population of English as Second Language (ESL) students. They are evaluated on the same tests as the rest of the school population, even though they don't speak English and might have arrived in the United States three months ago. In the suburbs, most students come from families that don't struggle every day to pay rent or have enough food to eat. How is it fair that less than three miles from my school, there is a school where students eat at fast food restaurants for lunch and sit on benches in their school's courtyard talking about what they will wear to the school dance? Kids in my school are dashing off to work to support their family and to try to pay for basics. We know the differences exist and we wonder why we are treated differently."

Are your students being treated equally, or is it the same case, Laine Alison Zalac is trying to address.

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