Closing Thoughts: An Educational Story
By Shannon Holmes, Domestic Affairs Staff Writer

As I was lying beside the community pool near Francis Junior High School one day and talking with a friend about her experience of growing up as a child of immigrant parents, she told me that growing up, she felt pressure from her father because of his deep concern for his family’s success. My friend knew that her father moved his family to the area in search of a better life. He was determined, as most parents are, to work hard, send his children to good schools, ensure them a quality education, which would lead to successful careers. This is the American Dream; to work hard in order to ensure quality education and a fulfilling career for your children.

At a certain point in life, the American Dream becomes inapplicable to you. For most, this time is the moment your child takes its first breaths in this world. The Dream is no longer about the parent, but becomes solely focused on the child and its future. Parents work, plan, save, and invest, all to ensure that their children will have a life that is, at the very least, a fraction better than the life the parent has. A better life is achieved through education. Not simply going to school and maintaining “good grades”, but an elementary and secondary learning experience that offers the child an opportunity for higher education, a rewarding career, and ultimately, personal success and fulfillment. Once this is accomplished, then the American Dream may continue for the next generation.

My poolside buddy grew up in the City of Angels, in California, a city with one of the worst public school systems in the country. Home to some of the most fortunate children of businessmen and entertainers, Los Angeles’ Unified School District has a virtually segregated school population in which 84% are Black or Hispanic. Exposed asbestos and lead-paint present health hazards for LAUSD students. Because of the high number of students in the district, the system operates on two yearly schedules, leaving many exhausted students and faculty with no more than two weeks of summer vacation. Fortunately though, for my friend, she did not have to attend school in these conditions, for her parents, and many others in LA, were able to send their children to private schools. Whether they paid the tuition costs for these schools or if my friend received financial assistance is unknown to me. But in this case, it is irrelevant. What is important to know is that with the help of parents, she escaped a poor public school system and is now preparing for her senior year at one of the top universities in the nation.

My friend is a member of a group I call the Lucky Ones. In struggling public school systems, L1s are the students whose parents are either able to afford private schools, receive financial assistance for these schools, or whose parents have the skills to register their children for a quality public charter school. For example, Chelsea Clinton, who attended Sidwell Friends Schools, a private Quaker school in Washington, DC, is a Lucky One. It is no secret that the District of Columbia has one of the worst school systems in the country. Over half of teenage students in DCPS attend schools categorized as “persistently dangerous” because of the occurrence of violent crimes. Health inspections show that over a third of District schools have been infested by mice. And only 19 of 135 Washington, DC schools have more than half of their students with proficiency in math. Fortunately for Chelsea, who is in the L1 group, she did not have to survive and succeed in one of the worst school systems in our nation.

But all are not as lucky as the daughter of a former and, possibly, a future president. Most children in failing school districts such as DCPS or LAUSD have no choice but to try and succeed in those systems. These are the Left Overs. Often times children from poor families or children who have disabilities and disproportionately minorities and children of immigrants, LOs live an American reality, one that consists of rundown school buildings, overcrowded classrooms, and impersonal teachers . Yet, they are the children who the American Dream applies to most. These are the lives that would be more proportionately touched and improved by education.

Everyone, every human, is deserving of a quality educational experience, no matter what their socioeconomic status. But, the American Dream is about creating a better life for your children, ensuring they live at least one step on the success-meter above you. How can this happen though, if the majority of children in even America’s capitol do not have access to quality education, the main and necessary ingredient for the American Dream? Sadly, the truth is that they most likely will not achieve this Dream. The Lucky Ones will rest peacefully knowing they are destined and aligned for a successful living, but the Left Overs will live every day fighting for what they increasingly realize is unachievable without quality education.

This is what my friend’s father worked to eliminate for his children; the feeling that a better life is unachievable. Because she escaped what is reality for many innocent children around the country and world, my friend has all the resources to provide her future children with the American Dream. Her children, unlike students in New York City, St. Louis, Baltimore, and countless other cities, will be the Lucky Ones. As for the Left Overs, they will continue to bear the weight of reality, until one day, this reality turns into a dream land of education and opportunity.