What will it take to get students who aren’t rich into college?
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I started my career as a history teacher at a large public high school, but leading a nonprofit organization for ten years has been a crash course in economics. The question I face as the Executive Director of 826LA, a writing and tutoring organization which provides free support to students throughout Los Angeles, is the same one countless families face when trying to feed, clothe, and educate their children: How do we do the most we can with the limited resources we have?
Americans balked a few weeks ago upon learning that celebrities and other wealthy clients paid William Rick Singer up to $6.5 million each to guarantee admission to competitive universities. I balked too, and had the same thought that my peers in the nonprofit field and educators everywhere had: How many smart, hardworking students could we help get into college for the $25 million that Mr. Singer made?
As astounding as the scandal is, we shouldn’t let it distract from what I believe is a more widespread and troubling problem: the completely legal systems that keep low-income students from attending college. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, more than 80 percent of students live at or below the poverty line. Their parents struggle to pay application fees, which is to say nothing of those who can afford to pay for SAT prep courses, private tutors, and state university tuition, let alone private school tuition. The $500,000 in bribes that Mossimo Giannulli and Lori Loughlin allegedly spent to ensure their daughters’ admission to USC amounts to nearly 15 years of income for an average family in Boyle Heights, where 826LA recently opened a Writers’ Room on the campus of Roosevelt High School.
Given these staggering discrepancies, it’s frustrating that narratives about “self-made” millionaires still run rampant in America, from the social media accounts by well-known celebrities to the president himself. How can a student who lives in poverty, who has faced racism and neighborhood violence, whose parents may be immigrants, get the education that will lead to a reasonably comfortable life?
The short answer is: It takes a village and a nation. 826LA views itself as part of an ecosystem that works in conjunction with dedicated teachers and supportive families to help students value their experiences and apply to college. Our focus is the personal essay component of the college application. We provide free one-on-one support to help thousands of students each year write the essays that reveal their whole, powerful, resilient selves. Maybe their parents couldn’t pay $15,000 for them to ace the SAT, or even $300 for an SAT prep course. Maybe they worked after school or took care of siblings, and learned valuable life skills that make them strong applicants. At 826LA, it’s our job to help them tell those stories, and thanks to the support of thousands of volunteers, we can provide our services completely for free. But imagine what we could do with $25 million!
But it also takes well-resourced public high schools, nonprofits that fill in the gaps, affordable college tuition, and living wages for family members. I am encouraged by the national conversation about college access that I see gaining momentum. I am even more encouraged by the dedication I see in each part of my community, and in students themselves. As a parent, I understand the temptation of wanting to guarantee success for your child with one quick fix. As an educator and nonprofit leader, I know there isn’t one. But I have faith in our collective ability to find fixes that are gradual, multifaceted, and impactful.
