In accordance with the current state of our government, we now have a completely inadequate and careless person in the wrong position – Betsy DeVos as our Secretary of Education. Now let’s discuss, why I care or why you should care.
Education is and always will be fundamentally the most important aspect of our known world. I doubt anyone who doesn’t appreciate the knowledge they have would read past the title, so I shall refrain from ranting on how absolutely worthless life would be if you weren’t able to withhold knowledge and develop theories. Every day receptors in the human brain react in order to spark a thought and/or idea – with these ideas we produce and create, which is how we built the world around us. Every creation began with just that, a spark in the brain.
Now, imagine this completely hypothetical world, of course, where children were denied the chance to have these sparks in a safe/supportive environment simply due to the home they were born into. This hypothetical world is about to be the world we live in. Last time I checked, I didn’t pick my family and no one should have limited opportunities because of theirs. Our lovely new Secretary of Education has proposed various ridiculous reforms that could completely corrupt the world we live in. I will highlight on the one that could affect our world drastically. Due to DeVos support of the ‘voucher’ initiative, which really only initiates a separation in the wealthy and poor communities – those able to afford the private schools and those who are forced to attend public schools. The government will fund, as in give extra money to, private schools so that they can have even more privileges and opportunities compared to the children in public schools. Now, isn’t that nice?
Human nature is founded on competition; competing for land/property, attention, reward, and for the need to achieve. Competition is how we progress as a species, by wanting to do more, quicker. Now in this voucher system, they would be given to wealthier students to subsidize the cost of attending a private/religious school. Whereas, giving the wealthier more of an opportunity to compete to attend the most prestigious schools and get the highest grades. However, in public schools, there is no incentive. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The success of our future resides in the intelligence of our youth. By eradicating the possibility for success of over half of our children, we then diminish the income our country could make by over half as well. Awesome because it’s not like we have a national debt consuming us already or anything. I chose to invest in my future and no student should be deprived of that chance due to his or her parent’s income.
* In reference to DeVos
Editor’s Note: The opinions and views expressed in this article are that of the author’s alone. They in no way represent Her Campus at the University of Utah, the University of Utah, or Her Campus Media.