Public Schooling Gone Wrong
By Laurel McFadden,
Staff Writer

Every Pomona student recognizes the value and importance of a good education. Without that background, we would never have been accepted to this institution; nor would we want to spend a difficult four years in a school like this. The state of education in certain parts of California, however, is often found to be in a deplorable condition of neglect. Despite the fact that the California government spends the largest part of the budget, 40 percent of General Funds in 2002-2003 according to the California Budget Project, on public education, the state remains unable to get its money’s worth out of the educational system.

My hometown of Fillmore, California, hosts some of the worst elementary and high schools in the state. The test scores in reading and mathematical skills are staggeringly low compared to the national average: the passing rates in grades nine to eleven are an average of ten percent lower than the state average, which itself is never over 55 percent according to the Fillmore Unified School District School Accountability Report Card. Every year, students who are totally unprepared to move forward are shoved into the next grade. The public schools of my area have been publicly denounced by the Los Angeles Times multiple times after the release of school testing results.

Fillmore is a farming-based community with a large number of migrant workers. The politics of the town often seem disproportionate to the seemingly obvious needs of the city. Out of the approximately 14,000 residents, only a small percentage takes advantage of the vote, and very little seems to change year after year. The schools stay overcrowded, the library remains woefully under funded, and money is continually taken away from problems, which are beginning to feel like lost causes.

This summer, I saw the contrast between the conditions of the public schools in my town and those in other cities and states. While in high school, I was used to the frequent gang activity and depressing stories of increased drug abuse and high school drop out rates, I have only recently realized that things really are not, and should not be, like this everywhere. On the California API test ranked Fillmore a three out of ten, while similar schools (based, among other things, on size, ethnic diversity, and socioeconomic status) ranked an average of seven. The ranking is based on a series of standardized tests.

There’s a lot of talk about diversity at Pomona, and I salute the Admissions Office for making every effort to include a wide variety of backgrounds in each freshman class. The choices, however, are still constricted by who is able to apply. Even the population sampling at my private high school was significantly more diverse from our Pomona population. The demographic diversity of my hometown is completely absent from our campus.

Isolated as it is, it is easy to ignore the fact that, in Fillmore, only a few members of the graduating high school class will move on to a four-year institution, and that some of the elementary grades are taught in Spanish. While this speaks to an effort to integrate the migrant population of our town, there is still the matter of whether students are receiving the kind of education most practical for their futures.

The problem of succeeding in high school in order to move on to college is often a motivational one. While colleges, and particularly places like Pomona, are far from cheap, the need-blind policies and generous financial aid packages certainly make it feasible for students of high academic standing, regardless of income, to attend. In areas such as my town, however, the public has been almost cultured to believe that this kind of education is beyond their reach. There is no understanding that an education goes beyond monetary considerations, and is more an issue of personal motivation than one of income bracket. Students stagnate in schools that give them no reason to put effort into their studies.

Despite the sad facts about towns like Fillmore, about 30 percent of the student population at Pomona is from California, and about 60 percent come from public schools. Public schooling can very clearly provide an excellent education when properly managed, whether in California or elsewhere. This puts the terrible status of schools such as Fillmore High School in even greater contrast. Pomona is home to some of the finest young minds in the world. The education with which we have been privileged begs to be instituted into California’s public schools, both for the sake of current students and that of future generations.