Education Reform: What We Can Do Better

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Unfortunately, our nation’s public education systems deprive our students of the very weapon Nelson Mandela spoke of.
All too often, students lack adequate accessibility to educational resources, and our communities are set back due to the plight caused by educational inequality.
Rates of poverty, drug addiction, domestic violence, homelessness, criminal activity and other social ills are directly and indirectly linked with one common factor: educational inequality.
With the proper access to a quality education and the guarantee of a more thorough understanding of their communities, their world and career prospects, students throughout the state and throughout the nation can become better informed individuals.
Our students are taught to understand the theories in calculus and chemistry, but leave high school and even college with little understanding on issues like taxes, financial budgeting or homeownership. Students are taught to memorize significant dates and names in American history, but they’re not taught or encouraged to thoroughly analyze and participate in their own political system.
The classes students are required to take are often outdated with old curricular materials and obsolete ideas. It is time that we take our educational system and comprehensively reform it from the ground up. We must keep what works, improve the things that need work, and rid our schools of what doesn’t.


One of the many, but most significant, issues with our education system is resource allocation. The amount of money a school receives tends to largely depend on the amount of property tax dollars its district collects. For areas like Greenwich, this works in their favor. For areas like Hartford and Bridgeport, however, it does not.
In communities that have substantially lower average property values due to crime and poverty, this form of resource allocation does not work. Impoverished communities with large student bodies require more funding, but the amount of funds they receive are not conducive to the student bodies’ educational needs.
Cities and states need to do away with the current form of education funding where property values dictate the quality of a student’s education. The value of any student’s education should not be determined primarily by the property values of the communities they live in, but by the drive and potential of that very student.
When it comes to laws regarding education, it is time we replace the ones currently in the books with more contemporary ones designed to improve our schools and the value of education for schools everywhere.


For starters, the dropout age can be raised from 16 to 18 to prevent minors from making the adult—yet most often detrimental—decision of prematurely dropping out of school. It does not make sense to give a minor the power to make such an influential decision at such an early stage in their life.
Requiring adequate career centers in every high school would greatly improve the career prospects of students who will eventually pursue careers of their own. Requiring a certain amount of volunteer, internship or apprenticeship hours would also improve students’ understanding of the communities and industries related to their professions of interest.
Hiring additional teachers and limiting class sizes would help guarantee that students are given the proper tools and attention for their educational needs. Reforming school calendars and schedules to allow for student, teacher and parent flexibility would also dramatically improve the educational experiences within our schools.
Finally, our schools need to update and better incorporate technologies—both in and out of the classroom—in order to better accommodate the needs of their students.
Education reform is a bold idea. It requires much thought, much research, and perhaps most daunting—much debate. The need for reform, however, is undeniable.


As our students are falling through the cracks of the current education system, they are falling behind in so many ways—but through no fault of their own. While education reform may seem extreme or difficult, it is in fact necessary and essential.
The time for a discussion on how to improve our education system is now.  There will inevitably be heated debates between parents, teachers, administrators, union leaders and government officials. These debates must not be avoided and reform must not be delayed.
Education reform will require drastic changes and a lot of work, but the worst thing we could do to our students is do nothing at all. Education reform must come first, and it must come now.