The Challenge

Public schools educate 90 percent of the nation’s children, according to the Center for Public Education. Most of the funding comes from state and local sources, but these resources are increasingly hard-pressed to keep up with growing needs. The public education system faces a crisis that demands a national response.

Record numbers of students will enter school over this decade. Many will go to schools that are overcrowded and in need of repair. One in three schools now use trailers for classrooms. The demand for teachers is rising, even as half of new teachers leave the profession within five years.

More than six in 10 high school graduates go on to college, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But neither family incomes nor college grants have kept pace with soaring tuition costs. Students and parents take on higher levels of debt and scramble for part-time jobs. Some students take time off from school to earn money and many drop out along the way. Those that graduate are burdened with ever-higher levels of debt that take years to pay off. The large burden of college debt with high-interest loan rates prevents many graduates from entering public service careers, such as teaching, and further exacerbates the problems of the public school system.

At a time when a good education has never been more important, we’re increasingly failing to provide even the basics. More affluent families send their kids to better schools and can pay to supplement their educations. But working and poor families don’t have that capacity – and increasingly their children are denied equal opportunity from the start.