Sewage floods the schools of Martin Luther King High School. The bathrooms are out of order and the books are missing pages, they also do not have enough books for all the students in one class. Imagine yourself in this situation; would you be able to learn the way people expect you to? In Martin Luther King High School they cannot afford to have teachers so they have substitute teachers. Would you be able to get into a college with the conditions you learned in, even if it was a community college? The people on the other side of town are ignoring the problems, even the government. All of this is happening in East Saint Louis. The colleges are giving points to all people who are undeserving of the points. . They are letting everybody in besides the ones who really need it, and who have the smarts but are unable to get in to a college. Affirmative action should not be available to all ethnicities instead if someone grew up in the bad conditions should be able to have a few more admissions points.

Some people say that every school in America is equivalent because of the “No child left behind” rule George Bush passed. It is based on school standards, not countrywide. The Martin Luther King High School cannot afford the books needed for the students. The books are worn and torn to the point where the books are missing many pages. They only have ninety books in one of the history classes when they need over a hundred. They can barely afford to change the light bulbs in the hall. The sewer is deluging the school, inside and outside. Students are catching viruses from the sewage that surround them. The toilets and urinals are out of order. The substitute teachers cannot even compare to real teachers, every single student around America can tell you that. The only deed substitute teachers do is throw work at you and expect you to do it and know it, but the students have never even seen the words on the paper. It is like a foreign language. The teenagers that are able to make decent grades in these situations are the ones who need the points; they actually worked for them in hopes of going to college.

Some schools are unable to afford the proper materials for learning and teaching. In some schools, like in East St. Louis, the first couple hundred pages in books are missing. The school is unable to afford new books. The children are forced to share books with other classmates. Since they are forced to share copies they are unable to take home the books for homework. The only chance they have to learn the material in the books is during their class time, but even then material is lacking from the books. Most students are unable to learn something in this mess of a school, but some students obtain the information and worked hard so they can make it into college. The only problem with their dream is that they can barely afford to go to college let alone to admit to one. Their only chance of getting into college is if they are able to obtain a scholarship.

The government is supposed to supply money to the schools. Well that is how it is supposed to be. The mayor of St. Louis refuses to even acknowledge the eastern part of St. Louis. The mayor believes that they would spend the money unwisely, so instead he gives the educational money to the private schools and privileged public schools. The mayor was once faced with a question about when he would fix the sewer systems in East St. Louis. He again, refused to acknowledge the problem and donated the money that was supposed to go to East St. Louis to the higher class of St. Louis. Keep in mind that the sewer systems in the upper side of St. Louis were in no need of repair and are completely stable.

Some people state that not every African American, Hispanic, Asian student have disadvantages. This is true, not every person in the world has disadvantages that force him or her to not be able to get into college. Only the ones who are in an awful situation like East St. Louis and they made the grades but are unable to get into the college because of where they were taught should be given extra points. For example, a student lives in East. St Louis wishes to go to college. The only problem is they made good grades for the situation they are in but the school sees that they could have done better. I believe if they did good for the situation they are in that they should be able to get at least a few extra points.

The students who try the hardest in the situations they are in should be the ones to deserve points to get into college, not the ones who have been in private school all of their lives. Not everybody is disadvantaged in the world. We should pay attention to the students in the schools who have nearly nothing. These students have somehow learned all the material they needed to know even though they were unable to take the books home for homework. People should acknowledge the students who go to school even thought the learning environment is awful. If you put a private school student in the situations that some of these people are in, they might not be able to maintain their grades. It is hard to imagine what it would be like in their shoes. The people who get points for being a women or simply a different race can be degrading, it should be based on the intelligence level of the student but there are people who have the intelligence they just can not make it into a college. We can make a difference in heir lives if we simply keep affirmative action for these students only, that way free points will not go to undeserving students.