“The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”

This popular meme pokes fun at what some see as the inability of public education to teach students what will be useful in their future, everyday lives. While ironically, grammatically incorrect, the meme encapsulates the frustrations with public education held by many, from the average student to parents to the nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

The United State’s public education is not perfect and has many flaws. We can all poke fun at it, but when we don’t try to mend the flaws as well as fail to recognize what our schools are doing correctly, a vital part of our society is put into danger.

Students in Kansas are not strangers to attacks on public education. Governor Sam Brownback and his counterparts throughout the state’s government have scrutinized public school districts for being inefficient and not putting students first in an attempt to justify cutting millions of dollars from district budgets.

Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 faced a million-dollar budget shortfall in 2015-16 school year because the governor scrapped the school funding formula and moved to a system of block grants to distribute funds to school districts. Students felt the heat as our district tried to find ways to save money. Seventeen of our teachers were let go, our clubs and activities could not run as they always had and our ability to focus on our education diminished when we had to grapple with a lack of funding at every turn.

Students became the victims of a failed “real-life experiment” in state taxes. Legislators allowed us to be victims because, at the time, there were not enough people there to stop them. Why was there no widespread public outcry while the legislature was discussing these cuts? Because no one cared, no one understood the value of adequately funded schools, we allowed it to happen.

If students and parents only criticize and never work to improve the flaws, the teachers, administrators and school boards are left vulnerable to attacks from lawmakers.

Kansans have finally faced and combatted attacks on public school, but nationwide we will soon face a new challenge.

President Donald Trump, and more importantly DeVos, pose a grave challenge to students in public schools. The president and potential Secretary of Education are both supporters of school vouchers, which threaten to pull money from public schools and channel them into private institutions.

Many believe in school vouchers as a way to solve all of the problems with public school systems, but there is a serious lack of evidence to support vouchers as a good solution for problems all students face. Vouchers threaten public school systems without making an effort to improve them in the short or long term.

Education for all people is at the foundation of democracy. Students across the country learn about the America and world they live in and how to make it a better place. Education is a right. Quality public education systems provide an opportunity for all people. Privatized schools threaten equality and put some of the most vulnerable students at risk.

We should all recognize the value of public school and support it for future students. Parents, students and community members should work with schools through small issues that come up rather than just dismiss them as a fatal flaw that isn’t worth fixing.

Rather than abandoning it altogether, we should support educators and school boards in their efforts to improve our public education system, so schools can become the powerhouses they deserve to be.

For more information on school vouchers:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/17/betsy-devos-wants-school-choice-chile-already-tried-vouchers-it-hasnt-worked/?utm_term=.07dfe22bf2d5