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America's Opportunity Narrative

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On January 2, 2019 The Hill published an opinion article written by Ayele Shakur entitled “It Is time for a radical shift in our nation’s opportunity narrative.” In this piece, Shakur criticizes America’s opportunity narrative that implies “resources are limited” so only some students will receive the benefits of “good schools” while others are “trapped in distressed, underfunded, low performing schools.”

She argues that “opportunity is not a fixed resource,” despite what our current narrative reminds us. I have to agree with her. Many of America’s narratives are powerful and harmful to those with limited resources. I am using narrative to mean the representation of events. How many times do we hear a person say something along the lines of “I wouldn’t be where I am today without (fill in the blank with some great opportunity they received)”? Just look at the example Shakur used about Michelle Obama. Obama attests switching to a better school as a child led to her success as an adult.

Shakur is concerned about the students who cannot switch schools or find a better opportunity. Why should we allow this narrative of opportunity to harm our students? There is such a drastic difference in our “good” and “bad” schools, but if we divvy up the plethora of resources available we wouldn’t have such a divide in our school systems. And more students would be successful. Shakur suggests we “change funding formulas for schools serving low-income students, deconstruct siloes that separate low-and-high performing schools and radically shift our education system to give unfathomably more opportunities to our most disenfranchised children.” Basically, she wants to destroy the opportunity narrative because she recognizes how harmful it is to our students.

This article proves the power national narratives hold. It forces the audience to think about the events and stories that have grown so large that they affect our school systems and the success of students. Although this is a more liberal opinion piece, according to Ad Fontes Media’s 4th Media Bias Chart The Hill typically leans right. I’m hoping that conservatives who are reading this article will apply this idea to school choice, which our current Secretary of Education is pushing. School choice would encourage the opportunity narrative. Some students will get the opportunity to attend "better" schools, while the schools deemed "bad" will sink even lower and the students within those buildings will suffer from lack of resources even more than they do now.

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