If students are not provided an adequate education today, then the ramifications are grave. Test scores and dropout rates do not adequately show the disparities and the tragedies that come from inadequate educational opportunities. For students who are pushed to organize, they recognize this is not a battle for books but a battle for their lives.

• 40% of students who are expelled from U.S. school each year are Black
• 70% of students involved in “in-school” arrests or referred to law enforcement are black and latino
• Black students are three and a half times more likely to be suspended than whites
• Black and Latino students are twice as likely to not graduate high school as their white peers
• 68% of all males in state and federal prison do not have a high school diploma (https://nces.ed.gov/pubs/dp95/97473-4.asp & http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/tsr/education-under-arrest/school-to-prison-pipeline-fact-sheet/)

Students across the country have taken Dr. Martin L. King Jr.’s lesson that ” our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” to heart. The argument for a more equitable and fair school system has proven effective, especially in Philadelphia. The student’s voices have remained a consistent factor in decision making even when superintendents change. They have mastered the ability to foster leadership as people “age out” of the program, which is a struggle for any youth movement.