The Shoe Story

I once had an argument with a good friend of mine over education cuts. It was after Gov. Mitch Daniels had announced that due to budget shortfalls, he was going to cut education spending for a second time in a span of a month. My argument was that education cuts do not affect poor schools the same way that they affect schools in affluent districts. My friend didn't buy it. Then, I told him about my shoe buying experience.

I know that shoes and education policy may not seem to correlate but stick with me on this. My little sister had a choir competition at Ben Davis High School. It was in the middle of the school year, so I was in need of some new shoes. Conveniently, the school is across the street from a Foot Locker Outlet Store, so I went inside. I browsed and browsed and found a couple pairs for about $10 a piece and went up to the counter to pay for them. While he rung my shoes up, the friendly clerk asked my what my shirt said. I didn't even think about it and stretched out the printing so he could read it clearly. That was, if he could read at all.

You see, the clerk behind the counter preceded to tell me that he couldn't read at all, but that he made due by recognizing symbols that he saw everyday. An American citizen around the age of 20 was illiterate. It was unthinkable to me. And that is when I realized that things like that don't happen in the Carmel or Fishers areas. There isn't illiterate store clerks that live and work in Hamilton County. This was a man who lived, and will probably die, in one of the poorest areas of Marion County and will most likely never be able to read a book, magazine, newspaper, or website.

This is my point. Education cuts do not affect Carmel and HSE the same as they affect Gary Public Schools and IPS. When Carmel has to redistrict or consolidate an elementary school, it is a minor inconvenience for over-scheduled soccer moms driving their kids into class. When IPS has to shut down an elementary school, it means that single moms working two jobs now have to choose between making it to work on time and paying the bills, or getting their kids to school. The sad part is that many mothers pick the job over their kids schooling.

Legislation like No Child Left Behind is an example of schools held hostage. While schools that are already under-funded and written off fight to keep their students literate, the government gives a majority of the money to schools that are already achieving a 99% graduation rate and think of literacy as a preschool issue. The way things are going is backwards. And the more we allow, the worse it is going to get.

The time is now. We cannot continue to allow our schools to be held hostage. I am not saying that schools in affluent areas have done anything wrong, or should be stripped of any Federal or State assistance. Rather, they need to take less, since their constituents have the means to take on more of the funding responsibilities. The more money that is placed into inner-city school systems, like GPS and IPS, the more students, faculty, and staff that they will be able to retain. When more students graduate, more of them are literate and able to function as a productive member of society. The crime rate goes down, college attendance and graduation goes up, and entire neighborhoods and cities can be turned around.

It doesn't take much, but what it does take is determination from the government to finally correct their mistakes on this. Let's start funding the schools that actually need it. Let's start giving students in urban areas a fighting chance. Rather than punishing them for being born there, let's give them the best education in the world, and not force them into the cyclical world of poverty.

Let's eradicate illiterate store clerks once and for all.