Chapter 31: Lessons Beyond the Classroom

Sabine City had twenty-two middle schools in total.

Students in elementary school had to spend nine years there before moving on to middle school for another three. After completing twelve years of education, they could enter college.

But not everyone could get into college. At present, the college admission rate was still under seventeen percent, mainly for two reasons.

On one hand, college tuition was still too expensive for ordinary families. Unlike elementary and middle school, where costs were relatively low, not every family could afford four years of college expenses.

On the other hand, the current education system was essentially a joke. According to surveys by certain consulting agencies, roughly ninety percent of college students came from private schools rather than public schools.

The failure of public education, combined with family financial problems, ultimately limited people’s chances of attending college. William had been unable to go to college for exactly that reason, even though he had filled out his application very seriously.

In other words, if one wanted to go to college, good grades were not important. What mattered was having a family that could afford the high cost, or a family with some power.

The current President of the Baler Federation had won the election mainly for two reasons. First, he had promised that during his term he would complete medical reform, lower medical costs, and make it possible for everyone to afford treatment.

Second, he had promised to complete a new round of education reform during his term, expanding the proportion of public middle school students admitted to college from around ten percent to somewhere closer to twenty percent. That was why people had chosen him.

As for whether he could accomplish it ... perhaps they would only know when his term ended. There were always some people who faced the world with the childish belief that things would turn around at the final second.

Of course, the current education system was not absolutely hopeless. Every school had scholarships. Compared with the brutal competition in public schools, private school scholarships were much easier to settle. The school boardroom could decide who received them. That was also why people sometimes said power was greater than or equal to wealth.

Michael’s son, Young Michael, was precisely such a “good boy” who received a scholarship every year. Academic performance was only part of being a student. Life, extracurricular activities, and after-school performance were also standards by which a student was measured. At least in those latter three areas, he fit the scholarship criteria very well.