Speaker and educator Tyrone Howard gave a passionate presentation on Wednesday, March 18 in the Business and Foreign Language Community Conference Room at Diablo Valley College.

Howard’s assertion was: America is a diverse country, so why is its school system not?

Our country spends more money on incarcerating criminals into private prisons than on higher education each year. The counselor-to-student ratio in California high schools is roughly 600-800:1, the worst in the nation. It’s impossible to deny that prejudices and discrimination are still very alive today.

Statistics show that America’s upcoming dominate ethnic group are Hispanics and will be the majority of the country in about 25 years. Statistics also show that 1.4 million of students drop out of school a year and most of those students are Hispanic and African American.

For whatever the reasoning behind these drop outs, schools are not making a conscious effort to be supportive of those who need help. Our system is not equipped to maintain a true learning system because all students are so individualized it is simply impossible for everyone to learn and understand content that is taught only one way.

The sad part about this is if a student does not understand the content they will more than likely be left behind. America’s graduation rate of all ethnic backgrounds is 78.2 percent. Although that is not a terrible turn out it could be much better.

Attendee and psychology major Silver Scharlach, 26, said, “It’s fantastic we get to listen to speakers because these issues come up all the time.”

This particular presentation was very passionate and contained a lot of truths America’s government or more privileged persons overlook or simply deny.

DVC student Ria Sharma, 19, thought the presentation was very informative and that Howard was easy to relate to.

“We need more resources and to bring more attention to the resources we do have and become more aware of what is and can be at our disposal,” Sharma said.

Howard himself is a 45-year-old professor of education at the University of California Los Angeles. He is very knowledgeable in how and why our system is not working for a lot of people.

“Education matters, and it matters for everyone,” he said. “We need to figure out why there are so many racial discrepancies still in schools. Making education better will make a better home life.”

Howard encouraged students to “speak your truth, speak your reality” for the sake of community, helping one another, embracing and connecting the real struggles of ethnic backgrounds, gender inequalities, poverty, privilege, and lack of financing in schools.

For more information, Howard can be contacted at [email protected]