Letter to the Editor: Leaving the MSJ bubble

To the Editors:

I think that the article “Educational Inequality in the Bay Area” from the February edition of the Smoke Signal did a great job at showcasing the staggering differences between education for different socioeconomic groups. I believe that this is an incredibly important topic to be discussed, especially at MSJ. Despite being a public school with free tuition, many of the students at MSJ come from privileged backgrounds. However, since we don’t fall under the category of schools with $40,000 tuition every year, it can be easy to compare ourselves with other private schools and say we aren’t as privileged as them. 

I really appreciate that the article was able to provide the history behind why different parts of the Bay struggle with educational inequality. Another aspect about this article that I really liked were the statistics that showed the quantifiable differences between communities. While I was aware that these disparities existed, I didn’t know how large that gap was. I also liked the acknowledgement of the “MSJ bubble,” which is something I try to be more aware of, especially with college and getting out into the real world. 

The topic of educational inequality is very important to me, and I have witnessed it firsthand through tutoring for underprivileged students. I have found that some of my students were several grade levels behind in math and English, but never had the opportunity to catch up with their class. Here at Mission, I feel like the overarching mindset is to take the hardest classes and then pay for extra tutoring if the student is struggling. However, these families that I worked with couldn’t afford to pay for tutoring, despite their children requiring extra support in standard classes. This difference definitely highlights the privilege that many students at MSJ experience.

Junior Luya Prasad