Chapter 31

Sabine City had twenty-two secondary schools.

Students spent nine years in primary education before moving on to three years of secondary school. After completing twelve years of schooling, they were eligible to apply for university.

But not everyone made it that far. The current university admission rate was under seventeen percent, for two main reasons.

First, the cost. University was expensive, far beyond what most ordinary families could afford. Unlike primary and secondary education, which remained relatively accessible, four years of higher education was a burden many simply could not carry.

Second, the system itself was something of a farce. According to surveys from certain consulting agencies, around ninety percent of university students came from private schools rather than public ones.

The failure of public education, combined with financial limitations at home, effectively shut many people out. William was one of them. He had filled out his application carefully, taken it seriously, and it still meant nothing.

In other words, getting into university was not about academic performance. It was about whether your family could afford it, or whether it held enough influence.

The current President of the Federal Reserve had won the election largely on two promises. First, healthcare reform, reducing medical costs so that everyone could afford treatment.

Second, education reform, expanding access so that the proportion of public-school students entering university could rise from roughly ten percent to something closer to twenty.

Whether he would succeed ... that was something only time would tell. There would always be people who clung to the childish belief that everything might turn around in the final second.

That said, the system was not entirely without hope. Every school offered scholarships. In public schools, competition for them was brutal. In private schools, however, things were simpler. The board decided who received them.