I think America would be a better place if there was a better education system. A famous French poet named Victor Hugo once said “He who opens a school door closes a prison”. However, this is not the reality in today’s education system. The education system in the U.S. has its fault in which not every child receives the same opportunity they deserve. To specify, discrimination in America is alive and well. Not all but many students in schools experience discrimination and hatred. Tracking teachers and even students is also a flaw in the school system. Bullying is also a major issue in the United States school system. The Department of Education needs to work more on these three issues then the United States education system would improve productively.

Discrimination in America is an important issue that no one seems to talk about. Research shows that poor, colored children are least likely to have highly certified teachers. A study published in 2015 called “Uneven Playing Field? Assessing the Teacher Quality Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students” revealed that in Washington, black, Hispanic and Native American students were most likely to have teachers with the least amount of experience and the poorest history of improving student test scores. This research shows that black, Hispanic, and Native American students have less access to honors and advanced placement (AP) classes than white students do. That makes their chances of attending a four year college very low. This is a major problem because students of color make up a lot of the students in public schools. If mostly white students are graduating and attending college, America's population will consist of mainly poor and uneducated people then of successful people. One way to reduce discrimination is by teaching self awareness. Students need to be taught that there are many races and religions and need to be aware that there are many differences between people and all of them need to be accepted.

Tracking is a system in which students are divided into classes based on their overall achievement. This is very common in American schools. Although tracking may have its benefits there are also many disadvantages. It has been found that many low-track classes mostly have low-income students while the upper tracks usually include students who come from high-income families. Low-income students live in poor neighborhoods. Poor neighborhoods have cheap houses with low tax revenues and schools with less money which leads to having not well prepared teachers. Only a few of these students go to college and even less actually graduate. High-income students have expensive houses and they pay more money for taxes and have better schools with more well prepared teachers. These are the kids that graduate, go to college and become successful. Tracking students may make the low-track students label themselves as insignificant from upper-track students. This can lead to self hate and lower confidence which also leads to decreased academic performance. One solution to tracking is to take all the property tax income and divide it out equally to all schools.  

Bullying is a major problem in the United States. Many students have taken their own lives because of bullying. Students who get bullied experience physical symptoms like stomach pains, headaches, and trouble sleeping. These side effects may pair with anxiety about going to school or participating in class which only leads to further loss of interest and decreased academic performance. Students who are bullied often display low self-confidence, experience depression, suicidal thoughts, and even violent outbreaks. A way to reduce bullying is to increase awareness by providing education about what bullying looks like. Students that show bad behavior and bully should not be tolerated. But schools should reward students with positive behavior. 

America would be a better place if these three issues in the education system- bullying, tracking and discrimination- were problems that the Department of Education worked on more. Children of all races deserve the same opportunity in their education. Every child deserves a chance.