The Price of an A+: Students shouldn’t have to pay for tutors in order to succeed in or pass difficult classes.

It’s Monday. You’ve only been in school less than 7 hours, and you already have three hours of homework from your AP issues. And the homework is only beginning.

AP classes provide students with mass amounts of homework and study loads for exams and quizzes. To make this workload bearable, some families hire private tutors — but not everyone can afford.

The price for a tutor ranges anywhere from $15 to $100 an hour, depending on the type of tutoring needed. Middle class families can afford this, but it creates an unfair disadvantage for lower income families who can’t afford a tutor, since they aren’t getting the extra opportunity to receive help.

A student who can afford homework help has security coming home knowing that the night’s homework is a battle they can tackle with a tutor, not alone. A lower-income student has to manage finding another way to get help from their teacher, who may not always be available before and after school.

The most common classes that require outside help from a tutor are math and science courses, according to hiclark.com. Teachers of these high-level classes should set aside more time in class to engage with students that need help, rather than expecting their students to understand quickly taught topics. This leaves them to stare blankly at a 20-problem worksheet for an hour before their next class.

Teachers also find themselves in a dilemma when every student doesn’t learn at the same pace. When half of the class understands a topic and the other half is lost, mean testing scores will decline. This leaves the teacher with a tough decision to either move on with half of the class confused, or review a topic that would leave the other half of the class bored and inattentive.

Students with low income are five times more likely to drop out of high school than those who are more affluent, according to InsightintoDiversity.com. This can be due to the fact that students in low income households can face challenges like taking time to help around their household and even having to support their family by getting a job — things that middle-class students are less likely to face. This leaves little time to get help with a tutor outside of class.

By providing more opportunities for students, lower income homes would have more opportunities to get homework help. For example, East for Excellence has been a tutoring source for many students at East, but is only offered twice a week, which isn’t an adequate amount of time for all students to get help.

Some teachers may argue that if seminar is used to its full potential, students wouldn’t have this problem. They could also say that students spend seminar time messing around or leaving the class when they could be working. However, more students would get help if seminar was every day, and as a real class with teachers monitoring students at all times.

This type of school system is being implemented in Germany. Their normal school day goes through all the classes like in the U.S. ends at 12:30 p.m., leaving the rest of the afternoon for clubs and activities — and most importantly, homework-related workshops led by professionally-trained educators. 

By implementing homework workshops everyday in school and having free time at the end of all seven classes like schools in Germany, students could have the chance to drastically increase their own success. The help students need should be through school — not their family’s financial means.

It all comes down to making changes in the school system and classrooms. The public school system is supposed to create equal opportunity for all students. We shouldn’t have a student’s financial situation dictate whether they get the luxury of a private tutor to help them succeed.