Everyone’s a rebel,

we all want to change the system.

We all shout until our throats are sore

but the government won’t listen.

 

School funding is paid by

the local property taxes.

So the rich neighborhoods get good schools

and the poor hoods, crowded classes.

 

I know it’s not your fault.

You’re not the one who wrote the rules.

But the US is the seventeenth

behind other countries better schools.

 

You began full of hope

about the lives that you would change.

Now you’ve become so disillusioned

due to the very low pay range.

 

Teachers don’t get respect,

from students or society.  

And when a child gets a bad grade,

you’re treated like the enemy.

 

Students are also hurt;

warehoused in rooms, like prison halls

with busywork to keep us busy,

we don’t learn much at all.

 

Highschool diplomas are

no longer useful anymore.

Blame it on the standardized testing,

No Child Left Behind and Common Core.

 

College is too expensive,

Forcing everyone into debt

for everyone must go to college,

because jobs are harder to get.

Most manufacturing

went to cheap labor overseas.

Now college is a necessity

so schools cost as much as they please.

 

And it’s you who has to

deal with this every single day;

with all the education problems,

and yet you do it anyway.

 

People want to blame you

for all their many frustrations

but I want to thank you good teachers

your bravery’s an inspiration.

 

It’s the United States,

so things will never change except

for so slowly that we have the same

problems that for years we have kept.

 

And most of it’s because

education or lack thereof

keeping those born low always low

and those born up high always up.

 

“So let’s give a cheer for

inequality!” Shit I can’t say

to my teachers or to anyone.

But it’s the American way.