Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos,

I was raised in the public school system. I can honestly say that I've been spending endless hours in public schools since before I could even walk. With both of my parents as teachers, it was easy enough to find myself in the halls of a school, a place where I felt safe and comfortable to be myself.

Though you have not been Secretary of Education for too long, I fear what you will do to the public school system, the home I was raised in.

I wish you could spend a day in my mom's shoes.

My mom was a late-in-life career changer - a paralegal for a large portion of her life, she decided when I was about 7 or 8 years old that the profession she had been following for years wasn't what she was passionate about. I watched her plant herself in my elementary school, where she found what she loved - teaching young children.

Growing up, I watched my mom, determined to do what she loves, take course upon course in order to get her Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education. It was a struggle at times, as the workload was heavy, and she had to spend hours at the kitchen table, in the dining room, at the public library, anywhere that she could have some peace and quiet.

Five years after receiving her masters degree, my mom is still paying off her federal student loans. And, just like my mother, I am now taking out federal student loans. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, I know you did not have to take out any federal loans for your children. Like my mom, I will be paying off my education long after my time at Stonehill College is over.

Even after my mom received her degree, it took a few years before she was actually able to get a job as a teacher. Even the world of education is so competitive that she still has not been able to receive a full time, classroom teacher position. Despite this, the passion my mom puts into her Title I, part time position is incredible. Title I was a program created by the United States Department of Education, passed in 1965, that distributes funding to schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families. My mom spends her time with children from broken homes, the poorest of the poor, and those who sometimes are from different countries and are struggling to learn the English language.

My mom uses a lot of her own money to support these students. The public school system does not provide teachers with a large amount of money each year for school supplies - the school provides a chunk of money to each grade, requiring the many teachers to split the money evenly between them. After this, each teacher has only a small amount to spend on school supplies, decorations for their rooms, books, and anything that is beneficial to the classroom. By the time January rolls around each year, this funding is gone, and teachers have to resort to using their hard-earned paychecks to pay for supplies for their classrooms.

I know that President Trump plans to use $20 billion of federal funds for grants in states to support vouchers for poor children to attend private schools, rather than the public schools that they are used to attending. With the Republican majority in Congress, it is possible that the $15 million currently allocated to Title I could be used for these grants. The grants would be used as a funding stream, and minimal oversight would be provided to the schools that the poor students attend with the voucher funds. Money that would typically be used for funding in traditional public school settings would instead be provided to for-profit and private providers. Public school quality would soon diminish - the measure of success for a school would be their ability to attract students which would cause schools to rely on advertising and marketing ploys to get students to attend, rather than the quality of their education.

Due to this, I fear the future of the public school system. The quality of the schools will soon deteriorate, teachers will be provided with even less funding for their classrooms, and my mom, along with all Title I teachers, could lose their jobs- which are major benefits to public schools nationwide. The public school system has been a internal part of any community for so long- instead of removing students from it to be placed in private schools, steps should be taken to provide teachers with greater funds for their classrooms and possibly a higher paycheck.

I am proud to say that I was a product of the public school system. The education I received appears to be equal to that of my college friends who attended private school their entire lives. A majority of the lessons I have learned and the memories I have made have come straight from my public school teachers. I have been taught by some of the most caring, passionate teachers who still keep in contact with me to this day. Teaching is clearly more than just education, it is about caring and having an impact on every student.

Some of my friends, also inspired by the experiences they had in the public school system, have taken this inspiration to the next level - they are going to school to become public school teachers. The future of the public school system is laced throughout colleges nationwide currently, and most fear the actions you are going to take while in office.

I wish you could spend a day in one of these public schools, in the places that were my home for the first 18 years of my life, in the shoes of people like my mom, my dad, and my favorite school teachers. I would not be who I am today without them.

Sincerely,

a proud product of the public school system