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Consolidation Of Schools Essay

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There is continually a massive amount of controversy around schools. One of the main debate topics being insufficient funding. Schools, especially in low income areas, always need more funding. What is the best overall funding option for small town schools? Schools should consolidate until they hit a certain size. Almost everyone agrees that there is a school funding problem. The part people debate about is the solution. The majority of school districts have a budget around 6,000 to 10,000 per year, according to Just Schools, depending on where the schools are. There are quite a few sources of revenue for schools including: Parcel taxes, the lottery, private funds, and categorical funds (The Solution). These alone only make up a fraction …show more content…

In He Named me Malala, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager, was shot for trying to go to school. She survived and has more drive than ever to learn. Young people inherently have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. When a district is considering consolidation, they need to carefully weigh all of the options. One of the school districts in Chicago underwent internal consolidation of schools in about 2008 (Aarons). They closed schools that were notorious for bad grades. The students were placed into schools that trended toward better grades. Education Week said that the district averages did not increase afterwards. The experiment showed that consolidating on the sole basis of grades is not worth it. The community plays a role in consolidation too. If districts are doing things the community feels is not in any one’s best interest, they can speak up and stop the consolidation. If school districts keep consolidating non stop, the community should step in and put a stop to it. The community should also step in if a district is not doing very well and consider consolidation. Citizens should also talk with their state government and senators about school funding. According to Ken Hancock from the Northeastern State University, the Federal government is cutting back funds almost as fast as community growth is replenishing that amount. The public needs to let the government know what they think about underfunded

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