Last Monday, education activist Jonathan Kozol visited Marquette's campus to shed light on our nation's biggest problem: the educational achievement gap. As campus representatives for Teach For America, we applaud his commitment to bringing this pressing issue to the attention of Marquette and our nation and are equally committed to finding a solution.

Our nation's schools are in dire need of help. Of the 13 million children growing up in poverty in our country, 50 percent will not graduate from high school. Even those who do graduate will be reading and doing math on an eighth-grade level. In a 2005 article published in Harper's Magazine, Kozol discussed the differences in spending on students from low-income areas compared to those in wealthier school districts.

He pointed out that the per-pupil spending each year on students in New York public schools is half as much as per-pupil spending in a nearby suburban district on Long Island. While this problem cannot be solved quickly or easily, it is a problem we must begin to address today. Teach For America's mission is to bridge the gap between the ultimate goal of educational equity and what we as students can do right now. Many are familiar with the two-year commitment by corps members to teach in our nation's toughest schools.

But many do not know of the continued commitment of corps members to improve our education system after those first two years. According to Teach For America's own estimates, more than two-thirds of Teach For America alumni remain in the education field as teachers, principals, school board members and even through educational non-profit organizations.

Other alumni in law, business and health care, armed with the understanding of the achievement gap from their Teach For America experience, are working to make systemic changes to end educational inequity. For example, one member went on to create One Economy Corporation, a non-profit organization that provides access to technology for people in low-income communities.

Teach For America is not the only solution. But it gives people the tools they need to work towards large-scale change, both now and in the future.