Most of the students in my school receive free or reduced price lunches. Their parents don’t have extra funds for education after high school. Traditionally, athletic opportunities have offered one path to college for our students.

Maria can’t go out for track, though. She has to go home to babysit her little brother. She offered to give up her Saturdays, but track does not work that way. Many students in my district go home to babysit daily.

Eduhonesty: Babysitting has been a real factor in some student failures in my past. Kids who go home to take care of younger siblings hardly ever get their homework done regularly. I don’t see a fix for this except dedicated homework time in school, but that somewhat defeats the purpose of homework. One reason for the gap between where I live and where I work is that kids where I live regularly do multiple hours of homework in the evening. Kids where I work often don’t or can’t hit that target. They are too busy making dinner and cleaning up the house.