In comparison to a lot of young adults or people my age, I have a real appreciation for learning. I’ve never been overly concerned with GPA’s and class rankings, because I have always found that the most important aspect of education is, believe it or not, learning. School to me isn’t about the degree, or the job to come, but developing as an individual. I learned more in my first two semesters of college than I think I did through most of my intermediate and high school education. I am left to assume that this is because, in the case of most of my teachers (though not all), the major concern wasn’t getting kids to learn, but instead getting them out of their class.

This was not at their fault, however, but at the fault of their higher ups, who urged them to teach us for standardized testing as opposed to overall growth and development of a healthy mind. Even then, the fault falls on those even higher than them, the fault of their government, who cut teacher’s wages and school budgets. They are making it difficult for faculty to receive the proper tools necessary for teaching students in a way that allows them to grow into intellectuals as opposed to test-taking robots. I saw first-hand the struggle of teachers, and of students, in a world where public education was being put on a budgetary back-burner, and now to see it on a national scale is even scarier.

Along with cuts to a whole slew of humanitarian agencies working to better communities and standard of living, Trump’s 2018 budget proposal includes a 13.5% cut to funding the Department of Education. I live in the Northeast, and am incredibly grateful that even the worst of my schooling was still among the best in the country. My siblings will go through the same, mediocre and unfulfilling series of tests and quizzes that I went through. While it won’t be pleasant for them just as it wasn’t for me, they’ll at least have whiteboards in classrooms and the occasional Chromebook caddy delivered to their classroom for a “fun interactive slideshow project.” It’s far from perfect, but despite the lowered funding our schools still manage to fight through and at least provide their students with their basic needs.

In other areas of the country, however, students don’t have it as easy, and schools are suffering on all levels. Lack of supplies, excess of students in classes, high dropout rates, and lack of funding are already issues in certain areas of the south and Midwest. This is without the proposed budget cuts. The only option for many parents is to send their children through private schools and pay college-rate tuition, just to make sure that their children can reach the point of even being capable of going to college (and then of course once they get there they have to take out student loans and wallow in a pit of debt; the whole system is truly so flawed).

The privatization of schools is of course Betsy DeVos’ goal in all of her work as Secretary of Education, but it simply can’t be done. Students should have the right to a proper education, and in the case of many students living in impoverished areas, the right to a life better than the one they’ve been provided with. There’s no constitutional amendment which outwardly states that “all citizens have the right to an education,” but there are constitutional amendments which ban segregation and promise equality under the law. By cutting off so much funding from public schools, the government is thus providing a means of practicing de facto segregation of neighborhoods based on income, and it can only hurt more than harm students.

Children are not more or less inclined to learn based on how much their parents make, so that should not be a factor in the kind of education they receive. All children deserve to have the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to find what they love doing. All children deserve the opportunity to pursue their passions, and to find their own worth. All children deserve a better education, and I hope that President Trump realizes this before it is too late.