We live in a country where not all people get a fair and equal education. People who live in the poorest areas of town do not receive an education equal to those who live in places where there is money. Many people work hard to provide a good education for their children, but do they ever stop to wonder what happens to children whose parents are unwilling or unable to provide their children with these opportunities?
In this great country we live in, we say all men are created equal. So don’t all children have a right to decent education,or are those just words we spout about our freedoms?
The fact that Ohio and many other states use property taxes to pay for public schools creates a system where the rich and the poor are divided. It creates a system where, if your parents have money, you get a great education, and if they don’t, you will more than likely get a substandard one.
We are sentencing these innocent children to a life where the best they can hope for is to maybe get their high-school diploma.
And where will they go with that? They will end up working the same poor paying jobs that their parents did. Their children will look forward to the same poor education they received.
I am not saying it is impossible to get out. I t is possible. Some children rise above their poor education and excel. But can we really expect children to have this drive? And let’s keep in mind these are children who have been pushed down by life. They have little or no hope for themselves. It is our job to give them hope. And we are failing.
In the Ohio Constitution we guarantee an education to all. We promise children a decent education. We are not delivering on this promise. We must rethink the way we fund schools. I don’t claim to have the perfect answer, but a good start would be to totally revamp the way schools are funded. Another would be for all people to realize that we must protect all children, not just our own.
We live in a great country with incredible resources. We just need to share those with all children.