In two weeks, a flood of students will turn in their tassels and exit the DeKalb County School System. And in August their spaces in the system will be filled by crayon-toting kindergartners fresh into elementary school.
Best of wishes to those young minds, but from my end of the street (as a high school junior), it feels better to be leaving DeKalb’s schools behind sooner rather than later.
While the new Board of Education provides a ray of optimism, as well as the chance and the credentials to turn the system around, they are simply a temporary fix.
The problems in DeKalb are not solely the consequence of previous poor governance; they are the result of long-term stakeholder indifference. It takes a village to raise — or educate —a child, and it takes more than nine people to handicap a school system.
If, from the get-go, citizens had granted local elections the same attention as, say, presidential races, citizens could potentially have avoided the district’s accreditation predicament.
It should not have taken an accrediting agency placing the county on probation for students to learn the names of their Board of Education representatives; it should not have taken the governor’s intervention for citizens to feel hope for schools. And it should not require blogs, rhetoric, or op-eds for citizens to understand the importance of qualified local leaders.
Over time, many stakeholders made poor decisions in selecting a Board of Education — not necessarily by casting ballots for certain individuals, but by neglecting to cast ballots at all. Every day around DeKalb, though, more students become eligible voters with the power to champion education for the sake of the next generation.
It is time that students assume a more active position in determining the direction of the school system; we must accept the unique civics lesson bestowed upon those who attend DeKalb County’s schools.
A solution to the challenge of educating diverse students is not found through expressing anger, pointing fingers at leaders, or even complaining about everyday issues such as school lunch quality.
Uninformed voters trapped DeKalb into its current situation, and it is incumbent upon the class of 2013, the class of 2050, and every one in between to break free from the rut of apathy, to stay informed, and to learn from past mistakes.
This is not the kind of civics lesson that can be lifted from a textbook.
