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Mayor de Blasio at a schools announcement (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)
When I was younger, my grandfather - an asylum seeker - used to tell me that hard work and persistence will always be rewarded. After all, he became successful in the United States after years of injustice in Egypt. And so, I believed him.
But during my time in high school, I have learned that this idea of hard work amounting to success is not the case in the New York City public school system.
Right before I was born, my family moved into a tiny downtown apartment
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