The Nation’s Report Card

Declaration of the unacceptable,

societal failures contributing to

decades of data. Our nation’s youth

reads like a math problem

but it’s a climate problem.

The barometer is steadily

stagnant. More recent rates

return deeper flaws, statistics

course through the gauge.

Average students redefine minority.

Racial counterparts taught

the design until the arithmetic

of hopelessness is ingrained,

embedded, never rejected. Despite

attendance successes, general

proficiencies are deflected.

Geometry is just a word on TV,

like government, and community.

Zero-tolerance discipline generates

dropouts like policies are more

critical than blacktop tragedy,

survival, or social inequality.

A troubling report card of dramatic

disparity, an impassable gulf,

an inescapable black-white gap

undermines the rigor of the uncertified

teachers, renewed state programs,

a slew of staggering stabs at intellectual

performance, and gainful employment.

The clearest half achievement barley

complements the declining graduation

rate, comes on the heels of missing

history books, physics and calculus

classes dismissed. The limits remain

louder, twice as persistent as the

collective growth, the carefully

measured upticks. Climb the education

ladder unprepared, and un-fostered,

alone, chipping away the narrow

overgrown path to equity, academy,

to basic math, reading, and biology.