[Intro]
"Hey, Pete. Why do we even write songs like this, man. People ain't gonna change."
"Oh, I don't know, Bill. You know, uh, there may be somebody out there listening. You never can tell, you know"

[Verse 1]
To the graduating class of 2000 whatever
Congratulations past due, you deserve better
Looking dapper in a cap and a gown
You got fam snapping pics, clapping loud in the back of the crowd
Now the band playing "Pomp and Circumstance"
Got you amped, feeling like a champ
Class is out of session at last
You've been patiently waiting
Twelve years in the making
Anybody who has doubted you was sadly mistaken
With a paper with your name in Old English for the taking
So moms can bring it home, to frame it and display it
With the grade point average hanging over your head
"Brother, Sister, please don't believe the bullshit they said"
Fuck the pledge of allegiance and arrogant teachers
But peace to the people who don't ever preach
Up in the front of the classroom, all day long
Planting seeds of revolution, we dedicate this song

[Chorus]
It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
Two for the teachers who are underpaid and shit
It's the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the stripes giving young bloods life
And four for the years you've spent stifled inside
It's the next generation of miseducated youths
Next time, ask 'em for proof

[Verse 2]
Now to the knuckleheads clowning in the back of the class
To the teacher's pet monkey in the front kissing ass
But most of all everyone else who sat between them
And questioned all the falsehoods that teachers believe in
Up in hallways in herded in, locker territorial-ism
Up in the assemblies, nobody would listen
Instead, rock the mixtape and Walkman discrete
With the headphones, threaded from the pocket through the sleeve
You received education through the music you heard
Cafeteria tables enabled beats to occur
Where students separated in cliques
The state of the nation, manifested up in high school politics
History repeated, you read it to regurgitate
Slave-owning, dead white men, folks you know they make
Curriculums to design obedient drones
Bring your paper but please leave your lyrics at home

[Chorus]
It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
And two for the teachers who are underpaid and shit
It's the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the stripes giving young bloods life
And four for the years you've been stifled inside
It's the next generation of miseducated youths
Next time, ask 'em for proof

[Verse 3]
Ay yo, we made it, 45 caliber proof
And your teachers don't believe that you can handle the truth
But the truth is that these hoots
Can't stand it when you
Begin to question the conditions
And backward traditions
As you recognize the threshold of negative stress
The crossroad between complete failure and success
It's so necessary, you pay attention in class
Never tell you the conditions in which to apply the math
Only sixty-five percent of your peers
Freshmen year, are still here
And half that total will move on
But three out of four will drop out in two years
Add it up and it equals some shit has gone wrong
Now the snakes gave you education, budget rollback
"No Child Left Behind" is just a backdoor trap
As you stand at the summit, future facing the wind
Now it's time to let your true education begin

[Chorus]
It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
Two for the teachers who are underpaid and shit
It's the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the stripes giving young bloods life
And four for the years you've been stifled inside
It's the next generation of miseducated youths
Next time, ask 'em for proof
Ask 'em for proof