The School-to-Prison Pipeline, No Longer Ignored!

In April I researched about the school-to-prison pipeline , the idea that underfunded public schools in America with majority non-white student populations give an extreme academic disadvantage, and create a prison-like learning environment that encourages students to drop out and eventually end up in a real prison. Most funding that could (and should) go toward education ends up funding police, prisons and the military, some of which goes towards literally policing schools. Allowing in-school arrests, “Zero Tolerance Policies”, and lack of resources for proper education enforces a pattern that does not allow students of color to graduate and retain necessary credentials to maintain a living wage in America. I don’t think any part of this is fair or right, and I wish all schools had the privilege of technology, current textbooks, books, and other literary devices. Unsure about how exactly I could change an entire system of oppression that has been woven into American grade schools, I decided to donate some money to teachers in need of supplies through a website called donorschoose.org. Underfunded schools are a major element of how the school-to-prison pipeline is able to exist, a school without books is pointless. Without our government giving proper supplies or a sufficient amount of money to buy them, this website allows teachers to individually raise money for specific things still needed in their classroom. To donate to this cause, I wanted to raise money in a quick and easy way, and I thought a non profit bake sale would be both effective and a fun way to spend my Saturday. Turns out neither baking nor selling is my forté, and my lack of preparation did not help me very much with sales. My biggest customer, who bought four brownies, was actually my next door neighbor, and I only received $2 from her. One other customer bought two which still only left me with $3, and I was not pleased with this amount. On further reflection, realizing I not only had little to no money raised, but was also turning in this project five days late, I decided to match what little money I collected with my own to make a sustainable donation. After some searching, I donated to a Pre-K-2nd grade classroom at J. Hampton Moore Elementary School in Castor Gardens, North Philadelphia. There are little filters that you can apply to each search result, and this classroom showed up as “no donations”, “literacy and books”, and “nearly all students from low-income households”. It was perfect! A lovely Mrs. Gaston described in her post that many of her thirty students did not speak English as their first language, and without a children’s library it was difficult to find something easy and interesting for a small child to read. She wanted to bring the Magic School Bus books into her classroom, because her students already loved the videos they had watched in class. I loved the Magic School Bus, and thought it would be fitting to donate $50 to her cause. Upon checking out, I noticed that the William Penn Foundation was doubling donations to every cause, so $100 went to supporting this awesome class. I was nervous about not getting this project to where I wanted, and not being able to support the cause I researched so much about, but in the end I'm really happy with the work I did and I think I will continue to donate to classrooms in Philadelphia as often as I can. P.S. If you’re thinking of donating anything to Mrs. Gaston as well, her classroom is here https://www.donorschoose.org/project/we-want-to-ride-the-magic-school-bus/5585375/?givingCartId=14483164 Annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fo5OS5WL5EzUBJSrtNONhPY43m871sX8-tvc3pRbgqw/edit