special olympics called unified sports. well, me and my brother a couple years ago joined this program called unified sports. and they have volleyball and basketball. i feel like it s a great way for special needs kids like him to gain more friends throughout the school and stuff like that. i think that s really important for our country to grasp and does more need to be done to include special needs students in terms of extracurricular activities? we often say they re often the first to be forgotten. luke, i sew appreciate. such a great we talked about issues of class and of race. but it s a reminder that the issue of difference is much broader than that and our commitment to social mobility in public education means every kind of student. i appreciate that. mara, you have another student. i m here with shaylah. she has a program for people who
student town hall. whether you re here or watching at home, we want to hear from you. as we search for solutions to the big questions about american education, we re turning to students. joining me is a 14-year-old from redmond, washington. who is a high school junior. she s an author of three books. i said that. and is also an international teacher, speaker and international activist. carlos cruz from pasadena, california. carlos dropped out of high school, eventually returned and now works with at-risk youth to keep them on the right path. over here, next to me is jennifer earlyman, an 18-year-old college senior at the university of arizona. on the other side of me is i keep saying amazing things. we have a high school student who has a new book. one size does not fit all. a student s assessment of school. angie flores, a freshman at miami-dade community college. you might recognize her. a couple of weeks ago, she
i think all the rap you hear about this generation not being involved, this debunks all of that. to each of you, i applaud you for your efforts in trying to reform education. you are the ultimate customer and you should have the ultimate sale of what it is you re receiving and i feel very proud to be a part of this. let me ask you about that language. i heard several of the students use that language of being the customer of the school. when i look at what the little rock nine did, i see you as citizens making a claim on the rights that you have, fundamentally, inherently as citizens. even for those who are not citizens, the dreamers have taught us, your rights as young people in this country. have we moved to some kind of different model when we call students customers instead of kids? i think they are both kids and customers.
than e-mail and facebook. there are ways to contribute. luke, i know you have a student with a question on this. that s right. i m here with tiara. she s from the bronx. she has an interesting question and comment about technology in school. well, mostly a statement. basically, when i was in high school i was going to a technology-based high school, but when i got there, there were no type of technology whatsoever. so basically, i felt that i wasn t getting that help that i could have used. but touriduring my senior year, finally got computers, but then after that, i felt i could have did better my freshman and sophomore junior year and now the school doesn t exist because all the students, failed, dropped out. had to close down the school because of lack technology. angie, i wonder if what you re hearing here is about this resource deprivation that you talked about.
3.3 million young people who have dropped out of school. an alarmingly high number. there is some good, however. there is some silver lining here. we noticed that in the last year since 2010, the amount of kids who actually finished high school is 73.4%. so that s the highest level of completion since the late 1970s. someone who did complete that is with me right now. the great denzel perry. he s an extraordinary young man from compton, california. he lost members of his family to gang violence, was surrounded by a lot of difficult circumstances yet is now a freshman at the university of california irvine and wants to become a judge someday. tell us about your amazing story of overcoming all obstacles, what it took and what is the message you want to give to everyone here today who could face similar circumstances as you did. good evening everyone. first off, i wouldn t be here today if it wasn t for the boys