Education Funding For School Districts

“Education is a major driver of development and is a strong instrument for reducing poverty, improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability” (The World Bank) - so why is it that students are often deprived from an extensive education? In Illinois, education funding has been an ongoing problem. Funding for schools is based on the property taxes where the schools are located, causing those who live in lower socioeconomic areas to receive less educational funding. This is unfair because children who live in lower socioeconomic areas are not able to receive the same opportunities and benefits that are acquired when a quality education is obtained. This is why educational funding in Illinois should be distributed evenly so that every

In this detailed and shocking book, Jonathan Kozol describes the horrific and unjust conditions in which many children in today’s society are forced to get their education. Kozol discusses three major reasons for the discrepancies in America’s schools today: disparities of property taxes, racism, and the conflict between state and local control. The first of these reasons is that of the differences of available property tax revenues. Kozol discusses the inconsistencies in property tax revenues and the problem that the poorer districts aren’t getting the same opportunities for education as the more affluent neighborhoods. He says the reason for this is that the

While all these possibilities from providing increased educational funding to inner city schools seem to provide a solution to the educational difficulties, the underclass is a multifaceted problem with several contributing factors. For example, the issue of students dropping out of school is not only affected by simply the quality of their education and resources. The appealing allure of drug dealing and belonging to a gang, both behaviors that involve criminal actions that could lead to incarceration, severely entice students from finishing their education. Furthermore, many children lack familial support to complete school. Their families tend to consist of numerous high school dropouts, and, therefore, lack the knowledge that comes from past experience leaving the student at a severe disadvantage. Plus, some family members will even remove the students out of school themselves, because they view the school as a waste of time. Even more detrimental to the underclass are the longstanding problems of unplanned pregnancies, single parent families, racial discrimination, and welfare dependency. With all these contributing obstacles that build upon one another in mind, it may seem pointless to fix the educational issues, so why should society and the government still pursue this option?

Most people believe that students do better in well-funded schools and that public education should provide a level playing field for children. Nearly half of the funding for public schools in the United States, however, is provided through local taxes, generating large differences in funding between wealthy and impoverished communities (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000a). Efforts to reduce these disparities have provoked controversy and resistance. Public school funding the United States comes from federal, state, and local sources, but because nearly half of those funds come from local property taxes, the system generates large funding differences between wealthy and impoverished communities. Such differences exist among states, among school districts within each state, and even among schools within specific districts.

Segregation has set races apart for years and years, but things quickly changed for a small town school. According to Junior Scholastic segregation is “to set races by law or custom,” and until 1954 all schools, stores, bathrooms, even water fountains were segregated. But the year 1954 was when the government made a change to that.

From an early age, individuals in America have tried to do everything in their power to reduce the inequalities of gender and race; however, the inequalities of education have proven to affect the future of the country the most. Education is a fundamental human right that is indispensable to both the well-being of an individual and society. To many people, it is considered a great equalizer in America, improving the lives and opportunities for children from a young age. Nevertheless, the great equalizer is constantly threatened, affecting the developments of these opportunities. The unequal distribution of wealth affects students of all ages in the education system. In order to reduce education inequality, the funds allocated to the low-income neighborhoods in a state should to be increased not only to decrease the gap between rich and poor and decrease the amount of poorly paid teachers, but also to provide schools with enough resources to ensure success.

“Hartford, Conn.- This is one of the wealthiest states in the union. But thousands of children here attend schools that are amongst the worst in the country.” (Samuels,1) The article focuses on the state of Connecticut but talks about the funding public schools get throughout the country on a federal level. Schools get equal amount of federal funding, but it doesn’t make a difference when local funding is a gap between cities. In the article, the author argues that due to economic differences between cities schools are not being equally funded, affecting the schools. She does this by informing the reader where the city funds come from, and how high poverty schools spend less on students than low poverty schools. Finally the author also includes

Everyone has heard the saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” but few people think of schools when they here this phrase. The way our educational system is set up today benefits students in high income areas more than it helps students in low income schools. People in the United States like to think that anyone can achieve greatness if they try hard enough but getting an education is important and being in a well-funded school never hurts. In this country there is a profound lack of funding to our schools and there is an inequality when it comes distributing the funds and it only serves to help some and disadvantage others.

The concern of equal school funding has always been an issue, "Nearly half of the funding for public schools in the United States, is provided through local taxes, generating large differences in funding between wealthy and impoverished communities" (Biddle, Berliner). What is the solution to this problem? Every child is entitled to an adequate education but how do we accomplish this? In a way this has created a form of segregation, "While migrant, low income, and inner city urban families are entrapped in lower-funded schools because of low property values in those areas, the demographic of students becomes increasingly homogenous, and more affluent families move to better communities with better schools and more resources, creating an urban-migrant dilemma in

In general, school segregation affects the quantity of a resource in a school and allocation of resources among schools. Consider human capital. For human capital to grow, students must have access to quality teachers. However, if quality teachers are drawn towards low-poverty schools and segregation tends to create a concentration of poverty, those students in the segregated school system are at the potential to be lacking in human capital. Furthermore, human capital is also gained by the number of resources in a school district. Resources such as counselors, social workers, high-quality after-school and summer programs, organized athletics, textbooks, and higher-level courses, all of which build up human capital, require money. If segregation segregates school districts between high-income and low-income families, the schools characterized by low-income families will have

The funding of public education has long been an issue for the state government of Texas. Starting before Texas was even a state, public education funding was at the forefront of politician’s minds. In 1836, one of the reasons Anglo-Texans wanted to become independent from Mexico was Mexico’s lack of a public school system (An Overview of the History of Public Education in Texas, 2016). This drove the desire of President Mirabeau B. Lamar of the Republic of Texas to create legislation that would grant public schools land (A Brief History of Public Education, n.d.). This act set aside four leagues of land per county for the use of free education centers and thus began the funding of public education by the state government (An Overview of the History of Public Education in Texas, 2016). In the last 177 years, the Texas Legislature and the Texas Education Agency have created numerous acts and laws regarding the funding of education, but it has been in the last 50 years that this topic has become highly contested, resulting in several lawsuits and endless efforts (by the school districts) to equalize the distribution of funds to Texas school districts (Texas School Finance Hisory, n.d.). In sum, the complex issues and policies that surround the funding of public education are derived from a combination of the legislature, bureaucratic agencies, and local governments in the form of school districts.

Public schools receive funding from federal, state and local funds. The greatest portion of the funding is often provided through local property taxes. Affluent communities are likely to have greater assessed property values than less affluent communities. The affluent communities can offer more funding at the same or lower tax rate than the less affluent communities. The text models this in graphs of wealth equalization systems. A basic example is given of two districts levying the same tax rate,15 mills. In the first a $100,000 property value per pupil generates $1500 per pupil and in the second a $200,000 property value per pupil generates $3,000 per pupil. Both the flat grant program and foundation program are focused on adequate minimum

The system of public school funding throughout much of the United States has tied a large portion of school district funding directly to the amount of property taxes assessed on property within each school district (Fritsche, pg. 724). This type of funding has developed a disparity in funding across the country. In Arkansas the amount of per-pupil revenue ranged from $1,576 to $937. This disparity existed across all types of school districts, from large to small, and from urban to rural (Fritsche, pg. 724).

In every state, though, inequity between wealthier and poorer districts continues to exist. That’s often because education is paid for with the amount of money available in a district, which doesn’t necessarily equal the amount of money required to adequately teach students, according to https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08.

The gap between rich and poor communities have only grown over the years. This is more noticeable now than ever before and can be seen very clearly in The United States education system. A closer look at it will show an immense difference in terms of resources between wealthy and financially disabled schools. In 2001, President George W. Bush, signed the No Child Left Behind Act to assure “every child receive a first-class education in America” (Porter). Although he had good intention, The United States remains to be one of the few developing nations that gives more resources to school with privilege students (Porter). In particular, the New York State education system is biased and in favored of rich communities and often harms the underserved,