Introduction

Hello. My name is Tyler Hughes, and I am a junior at Lindy High. I am a big supporter of school choice and district consolidation on Long Island, as I have experienced firsthand the problems Long Island's education structure creates for families. My parents have always been separated, and during my childhood my parents lived in two different, neighboring school districts, the one my father lived in being much better than the one my mother was zoned to. Although I mostly lived with my mother, we used my father's address to enroll me in his district. Everyday after school, I was bused to my father's house, but my mother would pick me up after work and bring me back to her house every night. It went on like this until I was in 7th Grade, when the district hired investigators after they somehow found out about my illegal enrollment in the district. The detectives filmed me at my two houses, and proved my enrollment was in the wrong district. My mother was given the choice to either enroll me in her district or move. We picked the latter, and moved into a studio apartment very abruptly. This was a difficult experience for me, and the only reason I had to go through it is because of lack of school choice on Long Island.
I have since moved again to Lindenhurst, and comparing it to my original district, there are various inequities. Both of my experiences have motivated me to be vocal about educational equity on LI.
I apologize if I sounded sorry for myself, as I did not intend to, I just wanted to explain why I am so passionate about education. I hope my blog will be informative as possible and generate support for the educational equity movement. Thank you for reading!