While working in Portland, Oregon as a High School Student Success Advocate, I experienced firsthand how underfunded and understaffed schools led to students falling behind on their learning and grades. I also witnessed how some students in their freshman and sophomore years in high school did not know how to read as a result of a chronically underfunded school district.

 

A moving experience that really stands out for me is that of a 16-year-old Hispanic/Latina female student who was failing all of her classes. I was assigned to her case as an advocate to help her bring up her grades. Initially, the student told me that she had no desire to do any of her homework because she just didn’t feel like doing it. However, after a few weeks of listening to her and encouraging her she began to start doing some of the homework. During this process I asked her to start reading out loud part of her homework assignment. This is when I sadly realized that she could not read many of the words in the textbook. I was shocked, appalled and furious. How could a student in one of the world’s richest countries not know how to read! Unfortunately, I discovered this problem is systemic because of underfunding. And we need to change it by starting to properly invest in our schools, students and teachers. We cannot allow more students to fall through the cracks and not learn the skills that they need to be successful after high school. Graduation rates for Native American students in our school district are only 64.3% compared to 85.1% for White students, 86.1% for Hispanic/Latino students, 88.6% for Black/African-American students, 89.6% for Asian students and 91.5% for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students.