Blogs

Net Neutrality

For me, it is simple to identify the worst part of being a high school student. It is not having to worry about GPAs, SATs, or any other acronym that comes with the modern high school experience. The worst part of being in high school is being young. Our opinions are often invalidated due to our youth. Any opinion on the Trump administration, national policies, elections, is ignored. Older generations tend to forget that we see the effects of national policies more clearly than they do. Whether it be the effects the rhetoric used in the past election cycle or the ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, high school students feel what the effects of national events in our everyday lives.

When it comes to the Federal Communication Commissions (FCC) dismantling of net neutrality, students will feel the affects of this much worse than any other groups. On Thursday, when net neutrality rules were repealed, three main things happened. Blocking websites, throttling the speeds of websites, and paid prioritization all became legal. The dismantlement of  Obama-era rules prohibiting blocking and throttling internet speeds will not affect schools as much as paid prioritization will. In the long term, the ending of the ban on paid prioritization could be detrimental to the K-12 education system.

At the heart of paid prioritization comes the ability for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to start offering pay-to-play deals. The fast lane of internet speeds could and will become dominated by large companies and people who have the ability to pay. This is where the public school system comes into play. In Colorado, one of the main problems our education system faces, stems from a lack of funding. Over 55% of Colorado school districts have to operate on a four day week, just to save money. Schools that can not stay open for a five day week will surely not be able to pay to have their schools receive faster internet speeds from their ISP. A modern day classroom though, relies on the internet. NPR cited a specific example of a school in Chattanooga that had students use an online resource from the University of Southern California. The University of Southern California placed a high definition camera on its scanning electron microscope which the students can control on a website and use to do experiments. This website and innovative classroom idea relies on “fast lane” internet speed. Now that schools may have to pay for “fast lane” speed means educational experiences like this one will start to disappear for these schools. The internet allows even the most secluded schools in Colorado to have the same classroom experience as schools within the Boulder Valley School District.

Of course, Ajit Pai was not thinking of the affects of the end of these regulations will have on the education system. This new deregulation of a national policy will create waves that will disrupt the K-12 education system. As a student, we will feel these waves reflect in our high school experience. Young students voices are as invalidated constantly; I hope that those on Capitol Hill creating these policies, will listen to our voices in the future.MLA Citations

“F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2017, mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-repeal-vote.html.

Figueroa, Ariana. “How A Deregulated Internet Could Hurt America's Classrooms.” NPR, NPR, 13 Dec. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/12/13/570262813/how-a-deregulated-internet-could-hurt-america-s-classrooms.

Mika Nijhawan

11/17/17

P. 6

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

We are told from a young age to live for the future. We go to high school so we can go to college, get a degree, get a job, settle down, marry, and have our white picket fence in front of our suburban homes. The life track we have been told to follow since birth, begins with high school. The purpose of high school is to teach and prepare us for college and the rest of our lives. Of course, we do not need college, but high school should be preparing us for  the rest of our lives. High school’s purpose is certainly not  to essentially funnel students of color into our flawed criminal justice system.

High schools continued use of zero tolerance policies and in-school police officers has lead to institutions of education and prisons becoming more connected than ever. To be frank, we think these methods work because why would we have zero tolerance policies and SROs (school resource officers) if they were not affective? The sustained use of these negative policies can be attributed to the fact that we see these policies as keeping anarchy from breaking out in schools. We have kept zero tolerance policies despite the fact that they do not improve a students overall academic well being; according to a study by the Center for Community Alternatives, 75% of colleges gather high school disciplinary records from their applicants and almost 90% of those schools use said records to make admissions decisions. This means a student who was suspended for a minor, non violent violation will see their chance of being accepting into college severely decrease. Similarly, students who have been suspended are more likely to drop out according to a study published by the American Journal of Community Psychology. Northeastern University  also found that about one in every ten male high school dropouts are in jail, while only one of every thirty five males with a high school diploma is in jail. High school’s with zero tolerance policies are preventing students from attending colleges, encouraging them to drop out, and pushing them toward the criminal justice system. Additionally, zero tolerance polices affect latino/black students more. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) published a study showing how black students are more likely to be suspended for things such as insubordination, while white students mainly get suspended for provable offenses like doing drugs.

Zero tolerance polices just add to the racial disparities we see in the criminal justice system, and SROs are not effective either. Initially, they were put in place after Columbine to protect schools from campus shooters. According to a study done by Matthew Theriot from the University of Tennessee, schools that have SROs usually have an increased number of student arrests, but despite the large number of arrests, very few students were actually charged in court. Considering very few students were charged in court, we see schools with SROs do not have a substantive amount of serious crime, but if you are a person of color attending a school with a SRO, you are more likely to be arrested.

Clearly, zero tolerance policies and SROs do not help improve high schools. Instead, they negatively affect black and Latino students, essentially stopping them from getting that white picket fence. The solution to harmful polices is, of course, to get rid of them, and replace them with something better. In this case the something better is restorative justice. Restorative justice is based upon the idea that when students get into arguments, the school does not suspend both students; instead the students come together and talk it out. The Oakland school district has been testing this policy for over ten years; they found that graduation rates increased by 60% after implementing the restorative justice program. According to Sonia Jain-Aghi, who helped create the 2015 report analyzing the restorative justice program, creating “a restorative justice program in a school increases student engagement, brings in a more positive social environment and teaches problem-solving, all of which contribute to the better academic results.” The reports and studies do not lie, zero tolerance policies and SROs do not work. Restorative justice does.

While restorative justice is clearly the future, Boulder seems to be stuck in the past. There are six school districts in the Boulder Valley School District, including (but not limited to) Fairview High School, Boulder High School, Centaurs High School, and Broomfield High School. Fairview High’s student handbook cites “zero tolerance” for certain offenses. Boulder High School’s student handbook is worse- their list of offenses includes “willful disobedience, defiance, or insubordination”; the consequence could be a five day suspension (and studies done by the NEPC show these types of policies hurt black students more than their white counterparts). Centaurs High and Broomfield High have more effective policies in the sense that they include restorative justice as a possible consequence (but both schools still suspend students). The Boulder Valley School District is on its way to becoming a better district for its minority students, but we could still take a few hints from the Oakland School District. That is, of course, if BVSD wants their graduation rates to increase while creating a better student environment.

High school is not meant to prepare us for a life within the criminal justice system. Yet, this is exactly what high school’s in Boulder (and across the country) do. The life track we are told to follow is not for everyone, but we all should have equal opportunity to go to college, get a degree, get a job, and have our white picket fence in front of our suburban homes. Zero tolerance policies and SROs stand in the way of that life, which is reason enough for high schools to begin the process of reversing decade old policies that favor certain students over others.

Abdul-Alim, Jamaal. “Most Colleges Weigh Student Discipline Records in Admissions.” Education Week, 8 Feb. 2017, www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/05/29/most-colleges-weigh-student-discipline-records-in.html.

Dillon, Sam. “Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among Dropouts.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Oct. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/education/09dropout.html.

Hemphill, Sheryl A., et al. “Pathways From School Suspension to Adolescent Nonviolent Antisocial Behavior in Students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States.” Journal of Community Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Apr. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774047/.

Losen, Daniel J. “Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice.” National Education Policy Center, National Education Policy Center, 5 Oct. 2011, nepc.colorado.edu/publication/discipline-policies.

Turner, Cory, and Kavitha Cardoza. “All-Boys School In D.C. Focuses On Helping Young Men Of Color.” NPR, NPR, 19 Oct. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/10/19/558706791/all-boys-school-in-d-c-focuses-on-helping-young-men-of-color.

Oakley, Doug. “Oakland: School district to expand restorative justice programs to all 86 schools.” The Mercury News, The Mercury News, 14 Jan. 2015, www.mercurynews.com/2015/01/14/oakland-school-district-to-expand-restorative-justice-programs-to-all-86-schools/.

Vox, YouTube, 11 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoKkasEyDOI.

Wikipedia contributors. "School-to-prison pipeline." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Nov. 2017. Web. 14 Nov. 2017.

The Power Behind the ‘Average Joe’

Bernie Sanders and Roy Moore, are examples of politicians from different parties doing the same thing- tapping into the power of the ‘average Joe’ and their grassroots movements. Bernie Sander’s original bid for president of the United States was originally viewed as a fringe campaign, an independent going against the “democratic establishment”. Yet, through harnessing the power of the majority, he raised eight million dollars- in a single day. Roy Moore initially started off without the support of major GOP leaders, yet still won the republican primaries. Even after the claims of his sexual harassment of women surfaced, he still is leading in polls against Doug Jones. The reason that both Sanders and Moore were able/are able to be successful politically is because they tap into the grassroots capacity of their parties. What we can take from Sanders and Moore is our need to tap into our own grassroots capacity.

Sanders and Moore are advocates for the majority, the normal, ‘average Joe’ democrats and republicans. They are people who understand the power the ‘average Joe’s’  have. We, are the ‘average Joe’ and we do not understand the power we hold. We can change the way politicians look at issues like workforce development, immigration, and especially education. In Colorado, specifically, the average Joe’s have changed the way education is viewed within our own state. The key way this was done, was by the majority realizing the true power behind their grassroots moments.

One example of Colorado’s grassroots capacity is seen through the PARCC test. The PARCC test is a standardized test that is agreed on by most to be the single greatest time waster of the modern era. Luckily, Colorado state legislators have now reduced the testing requirements needed in high school. Kim Redd is a longtime educational advocate in Colorado and she claims that the reason state legislators changed testing requirements was because of grassroots activism, “…students have protested, parents have opted their children out of tests, the State Board of Education has spoken out”. When the ‘average Joe’ talked and took advantage of their true grassroots power, change happened. This is just one example of the true grassroots power the average hold.

Bernie Sanders and Roy Moore understand the grassroots capacity of the average Joe. We, ourselves, do not seem to understand our own power. We forget that Sanders and Moore would be nowhere without us. The ‘average Joe’ is the backbone of American democracy- we can not forget that. We need to collectively realize the power we hold and take advantage of it. The fight for equal education in Colorado is not over, several small towns suffer from teacher droughts, the graduation rate of Hispanic students is almost 15% less than their white counterparts, and getting access to resources for college continues to be a struggle for the minority.

The way to fix these issues is to take advantage of the grassroots power we hold. As Kim Redd says, “Change [in education] occurs through both a grassroots level as well as a legislative level”. Taking action, talking to state legislators, calling national representatives, attending town-hall meetings, making donations, are all small things we can do to take advantage of our own grassroots power. If Bernie Sanders and Roy Moore were able to recognize the sheer mass of might that comes from the ‘average Joe’s’, it is about time we do as well.

The College Board

To high school students, the College Entrance Examination Board (The College Board)  is like the friendly hand guiding us to higher education. The College Board administers the SAT and AP tests; when we look for scholarship programs, we start at the College Board website. It calls itself “a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success”. Nevertheless, the College Board is merely another example of a capitalist money drain that only aides certain groups to success.

The College Board claims that it is a not for profit organization, meaning the good “Samaritans” running the board should not be claiming a direct profit from the institution. GuideStar, another non profit organization, compiles comprehensive financial reports of non profit agencies through publicly available information, such as tax forms. During the 2015 fiscal year, the College Board had a total revenue of  $915 million, while losing $840 million in expenses cost. Their net gain was over $75 million. This 75 million is generated from College Boards astronomically high costing tests, was not used to benefit low-income or at risk students. Rather this money was placed directly into the wallets of the CEOs and top executives of the College Board; the same people who initially decided the costs of these tests.

How much do tests like the SAT cost? To take the test (with the essay section), it costs students $60, 1.36 million students took this test last year. These fees are too much to bear for some families, so the College Board has created a Fee Waivers program. If you are eligible, you can take the SAT for free twice, receive four score reports, and waive four of your college application fees (among other things). The SAT Fee Waivers program is under no circumstance, a bad thing. Yet, the College Board has used this program to claim they, as an organization, are beneficial to low-income students. At the same time, the SAT is not the only College Board test high achieving high school students take. Last year, 2.7 million students took 5 million AP tests. The College Board does not provide fee waivers for AP tests, though; they only have fee reductions. A student living below the poverty line, can qualify for a $32 fee reduction, meaning they pay $53. Most students take more than one AP test and they may need to purchase prep books, the costs can add up quickly.

A lack of resources and lofty test costs negatively affect students in Colorado in particular ways. Over the last decade, Colorado has seen an immense increase in the number students living in high concentrated poverty areas. A child living in a high concentrated poverty community is more likely to suffer from things such as high stress and emotional problems, even if they do technically live above the federal poverty line. This also means these students are isolated from resources that are available to them, therefore to reach these students, the College Board needs to make more of an effort. Additionally, in Colorado after the recession, homelessness among students has almost doubled. In most situations, these kids and their families are not living on the street, but rather have doubled up in homes with friends/family. These crowded houses are preferable to living in a car, but this means that academic performance suffers. In general, the data shows that ever since the recession, the academic performance of Colorado students has been suffering.  Overall, our child poverty rate is going down, but there are still issues to address. The best way to get students out of poverty is through education. The only problem is, it is very difficult for these students to find and receive programs like the College Board’s fee waiver program. The solution to this lack of resources/lack of ability to find them, is to expand these programs. Make them more available and wide spread. so all students in high poverty and high stress situations know about and can utilize them. Of course though, the additional $75 million in profits generated by the board, is not being put to good use.

It is true that the College Board’s SAT and ACT fee waiver/reduction programs, have been essential for some students. The issue, is that they aren’t readily available or expansive enough for other students, like the Colorado kids living in high poverty areas or doubled up homes. We must realize, the reason these program are essential, is because of the high costing tests. We would not need free waiver programs, if the test was originally free. But, these tests do cost money and the high costing tests means that the College Board, a not for profit, creates a net profit of over $75 million. This 75 million does not go back into bettering these waiver programs. This net gain does not increase the number of cost-free SATs or completely waive AP test prices for students. The profits of a not for profit merely profit one type of person- the one in charge, while in high school students in Colorado (and America) are left to deal with the consequences.

“AP Exam Fee Reducations.” AP Exam Fee Reductions, apcentral.collegeboard.org/ap-

        coordinators/exam-ordering-fees/exam-fees/reductions.

Berkman, Justin. “SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips.” How Many Colleges Should You

         Apply To? Expert Guide, blog.prepscholar.com/how-many-colleges-should-i-apply-to.

“College Entrance Examination Board.” GuideStar, www.guidestar.org/profile/13-1623965.

“Colorado Report - 2016.” Talk Poverty, talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/colorado-2016-report/.

“Fees and Fee Reductions.” AP Exam Fees and Reductions, apstudent.collegeboard.org/

               takingtheexam/exam-fees.

Minor, Nathaniel. “Colorado's child poverty, explained in 12 charts and maps.” Colorado Public

        Radio, 23 Mar. 2015, www.cpr.org/news/story/colorados-child-poverty-explained-12-charts-

        and-maps.

“SAT Fee Waivers.” SAT Suite of Assessments, 12 Sept. 2017, collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/     

         sat/register/fees/fee-waivers.

“The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National    

         Center for Education Statistics).” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home

         Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372

Wikipedia contributors. "College Board." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The 

         Free Encyclopedia, 2 Nov. 2017. Web. 7 Nov. 2017.

Winerip, Michael. “SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors.” The New York Times,

        The New York Times, 4 May 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/education/sat-essay-test-

         rewards-length-and-ignores-errors.html.

“2.7 Million Students Expected to Take Nearly 5 Million AP Exams in May.” The College    

         Board, 16 May 2017, www.collegeboard.org/releases/2017/students-take-ap-exams-in-may.

Representatives from Larry H. Miller Dealerships presented a check for $10,000 to SafeHouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN) on Wednesday, December 6, as part of the dealership group’s “5 Weeks of Giving.” The $10,000 donation will support Safehouse’s Emergency Shelter program, which provides immediate crisis intervention and safe shelter to survivors of interpersonal violence and their children. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the Denver Metro area, and in the U.S., is woman and children, and domestic violence is the number one cause for their homelessness, according to SPAN.

Shelter residents may stay at SPAN for up to six weeks, and they receive all basic needs, counseling and advocacy services, access to a therapeutic play area and computer stations, and other services to foster self-sufficiency. SPAN began providing emergency shelter services in 1979. The organization provides safe shelter for more than 350 survivors and their children each year in their 27-bed facility.

The donation is being presented as part of Larry H. Miller Dealerships’ “5 Weeks of Giving” campaign to help positively impact the lives of Coloradans throughout the holiday season. Larry H. Miller dealership employees across Colorado are presenting more than $60,000 in monetary donations to various charitable programs, conducting collection drives in support of children and families, and volunteering their time in the communities they serve.

Assistance from Larry H. Miller Charities, the charitable arm of the dealership group, is directed towards women and children’s programs, with an emphasis on health and education. Funds are generated, in large part, through employee contributions.