Robert Kennedy once said, “I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”
I would like to add that in a society of plenty, poverty is our enemy. This enemy has accomplices that have allowed for approximately one in ten New Jerseyans to live under the poverty line.
In Newark , nearly one in three children live in poverty, while in Camden that number reached over fifty percent in the past year. The people, though, have tools at their disposal to overcome and rid our state of poverty. With proper use, education and self esteem could defeat poverty and its allies. Kennedy would later state, “Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.” The question then is what are these changes?
Political pundits and education experts from each side of the political pendulum have criticized our state and nation’s education system. They have made compelling arguments for additional funding, voucher programs, charter schools, public preschool, and early reading programs directed toward children of Hispanic immigrants.
The issue with these reforms is that they come from experts who think their age, which, obviously, is not the same thought process of a child entering first grade or a teenager entering his, or her, first year in High School.
For just one day these experts must step inside the shoes of these students to completely view the world that they see. This means, simply, that local boards of education along with the state must make “school cool”.
This can only be done through getting the children out of from behind their desks and into museums at an early age.
Teach these children math at the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame, history at the Historic Barracks in Trenton, and science on our beautiful coast and Highlands.
Have non-profit programs and private industry enter the school not to sell their product; instead to teach children about the financial sector, engineering, politics, and the healthcare industry.
Allow for high school children to have additional chances at afterschool internships and gain credits by learning from experts in their interested field.
By making “school cool” then we will truly see progress in the next generation’s learning capabilities.
New Jersey’s cities must produce residents that have pride and strong connection to their hometown for all of the positive reasons.
The first step in this production comes from establishing heftier fines and harsher penalties for slumlords.
We have seen that these slumlords allow for individuals to live in hideous conditions, featuring numerous safety regulations.
In the past decade, there have been countless stories, in the local media, of local cities doing crackdowns on slumlords but rarely have we seen this infestation truly cured.
With more stringent penalties on these individuals then we will see a beautiful city and beautiful people, but until this crackdown are truly effective we will continue to witness cities that feature low self esteem individuals, decrepit buildings, and landlords walking away with asinine profits.
The tools do exist for New Jerseyans to come together and be the first state to rid any of its population of poverty, but we must properly use education and self esteem to our advantage. Together, we can, once and for all, end poverty in the garden state.
Jacob Zychick, is currently a Political-Science student at Fairleigh Dickinson University and currently serves as the Chairman of the Reform Party of NJ. Jacob Zychick can be reached at reformpartynj@gmail.com
