Education reform has always been one of my passions. I believe that education is the strongest tool we have to fight poverty, ignorance and many other issues that we face on a daily basis.

As a product of Dallas ISD I felt that I had not been prepared well enough for my journey at SMU. I had no idea as to how I should study or what college was going to be like. If I felt like this as a magnet school graduate I can only imagine what my peers from their respective community high schools had to deal with.

The video that has recently come to light from a student at Duncanville ISD speaks volumes about our current education system. As it stands, we are currently allowing schools to opt out of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program put in place during George W. Bush’s presidency.

As a bill with good intentions, by this year most schools in the nation would have lost all of their funding because they did not meet the requirements that were suppose to have been met by now.

To continue funding schools, waivers were given for NCLB. These waivers were approved according to a plan of action that each state turned in. This means that currently, most states are educating America’s children at different levels. So what may be acceptable for a third grader in Texas, may be too low for a student in Virgina.

However, this does not matter in our current education policy because we are okay with having different standards that allow our children to barely pass to keep our schools funded rather than focus on the education of our children.

This is a subject that closely touches my heart because we should not have to watch any other student walk out of a classroom being so upset like in the video.

We should be progressing not living a future filled with uncertainty and mediocrity. Education needs reform and if we keep putting it aside, we will all fail.