Success in many facets of life is based not on merit but on mutual friendships and social leverage. In my experience, this has been especially true of the education system. I am in the honors program at my college, and one of the main advertised benefits of membership is “networking.” Members will get to know their professors, college faculty, and the executive board much more closely than the average student. In seminars on why to join the honors program, we were told that we would be given first preference on scholarship and internship opportunities.

Some of my friends in the honors program have already been given grants for research that they did not even know existed, let alone apply for, simply because a professor knew and liked them. We have been told that our network of faculty members will get us places. We will have an advantage. While this is wonderful for the people like my friend, whom I am sure will do an excellent job with the research he was entrusted with, many people are left at a disadvantage. It has been made very clear to us that success here at college and in life is based on who you know. Competence is attractive (only the top fifth of academically ranked students are invited to the honors program) but not nearly as much as familiarity.

Working in student government throughout my highschool career and interning for my state government has showed me that things move for people who know people. The merit of your ideas, your passion, your work ethic have very little to do with whether or not you are successful. Politicking is all about subtleties--veiled threats, insinuated promises, allusions to mutual friends and common interests. If you want things to change within a bureaucracy, you have to pose a threat to it. Politicians are motivated to maintain control over their perceived fiefdoms. They will seek to maintain what power they have and to expand it if possible. In the words of one of my teachers, this is the result when society puts small people in charge of big things.

I was constantly disappointed and frustrated with the petty basis for decisions that affected everyone in my home town’s K-12 public school system. In a district where we get as much as 300 inches of snow a winter and lose up to a month in snow days, the school start date for the 2016-2017 school year was set a week later than usual in spite of teachers’ protests that they were already struggling to meet deadlines for standardized exams. If anything, the education professionals suggested an earlier start. Why was the date moved later then? The elected board of education members felt pressured by the local business community that was pushing for a post-labor day start.

The quality of education was sacrificed knowingly to keep the political giant that is my county’s chamber of commerce happy. Teachers protested the postponed start date vehemently, while I , the student representation on the board, testified to the struggle students face to prepare for standardized exams which play such an important role in our educational futures today. The chamber of commerce has a major role in decisions at both the local and state level of government. The school board was faced with a decision-- make the chamber of commerce angry and risk losing county funding, or start school later and risk poorer test scores and rushed “teaching for the test” education.

Often ideals such as the quality of education lose out in the political game that is being played at every level of government in our country, whether local, state, or federal in both public K-12 schools and in colleges and universities. It is important to note that the vote was not unanimous. There was a visible struggle to come to this decision that resulted in a split vote and much controversy. It should not be so hard for school systems to choose between the quality of education they provide and the politicians they need to please in order to get funding.

Many people have lamented the decline in the quality of education, but that has only resulted in increased government oversight and red tape that leads school systems to focus more on navigating the political field instead of doing what is best for students. Funding for schools and the education, and therefore future, of our youth should not be a political bargaining chip. When a school system becomes a political rather than an educational entity, students lose every time. Decisions on what is best for students should be made by educational professionals and not career politicians.

Ask any teacher what the main obstacles to learning in the classroom are, and many of them will tell you that the amount of paperwork they have to do prevents them from preparing quality lessons and actually spending time with their students.Teachers need to be empowered instead of hindered. Accountability is important, but not when it prevents teachers from doing their jobs. Schools are not like the IRA or the FDA. It’s time we stopped treating them like an extension of the federal bureaucracy and started empowering them to do what is best for students.