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Since the LA trip, one thread that I haven’t forgotten was the physical condition of the public elementary school that we visited. We couldn’t even find the entrance to the schools because it was surrounded in fences. The fact that they don’t have a computer in their classroom was shocking to me. In the school that I was helping in, there was one window and no hallways. You enter the classroom from the outdoors. Although the teacher made the room colorful and welcoming, it doesn’t seem at all equitable in comparison to schools around the country. The quality of a public education that a child receives shouldn’t be dependent on the zip code that they grow up in.

In fact, this has been a broader issue in the LA Area that we didn’t discuss much in our conversations surrounding education. In 2014 and 2015, the several billion dollar goal was to give children in the district iPads instead of diverting the funds to necessary repairs around the LA Unified School District. The repair list ranged from bug infestations and leaky ceilings to broken sinks, not to mention the supply need list required the replacement of decades old textbooks.

Now, who will solve this problem? In an ideal world, taxes/state funding/national funding would build on each other to solve this problem. But, if the funding isn’t coming from the federal government, the zip code problem will persist. Do you think a 2020 presidential candidate will make the difference in our system? I feel like they always have great plans but can’t deliver due to the checks and balances of the system (which are good). Do you have thoughts on this?