Why Is It So Hard to Build a Decent Education System?

Students have all sorts of barriers to getting a decent education, some of them are systemic and some of them are personal. Education policy is surprisingly complicated as I learned when I was doing research for my book, What the Hell is Going On? Alongside this, I’m happy to be offering a great book from my friend Bronwyn Harris. We’ve featured her over at Rouges Magazine and she is a teacher from California who has amazing stories to tell about how the education system underserves young people who are poor, immigrants or don’t have a good home life. I think that’s the part that shocked me the most. Educational attainment has little to do with teachers and buildings. It has a great deal to do with socio-economics.

Kids Are Resilient, Aren’t They?

There are plenty of stories of kids who make it out of adverse circumstances and manage to achieve their educational and life goals. Those stories are rare, so rare in fact that we highlight them when it happens. The reality is that for many, without a decent education they will not go very far in life. Thanks to information and automation, this outcome is becoming more common for more people. They are simply trapped in low wage jobs and for many, they don’t even get trapped in those jobs. For people of color, these problems are amplified. Generational wealth was robbed from their ancestors and it has created multiple generations of ever-poorer people. The children suffer the most. When there is no food at home, no help with homework and no one to take an interest in them, these kids often end up in very sad situations which only fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. Kids are resilient to a point but they can’t overcome everything like lack of food, lack of parental involvement, taking care of siblings, lack of test prep or even basics like clothing.

To Fix Education, You Need to Fix America

Once I started to understand the history of the United States and our fractured education system, I came to one haunting conclusion: the education system was working just fine: its the country that was broken. Almost every problem that education faces could be solved with appropriate social policies. We’ve mandated compulsory education but stripped the tools away from parents that allow their families’ the luxury to let the children spend their time being educated. The only way to make the education system work for those of lower socioeconomic status is to create the right social programs that support success. A good teacher and a standardized test can’t fix a poor home life or lack of food access.

Want to Learn More?

If you want to read more about education in America I highly suggest these books. Bronwyn takes you right inside her East Oakland classroom and I analyze the entire system in an essay exclusive to my book. You can get both now right here and shipping is free on orders over $35.