Increase Funding for California Schools
Jode Williamson
Comm/215
July 28, 2010
Samuel Trident
“California has cut $18 billion, one-third of state school funding, from money for kindergarten through high school over the past three years.” USA Today (Welch, 2011). Budget cuts to the California Public School System, which is the underlying factor in the deterioration of the quality of education, has had a negative impact on every facet of society. From students to teachers to employers, all have felt the effects of decreased funding of schools. The state of California is headed in the wrong direction by reducing school funding and unless a solution is found to minimize or put a halt to these reductions, our children will bear the
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The state budget cuts have also taken a toll to both teachers and parents’ pocketbooks. According to (Kloberdanz-Modesto, 2011) “As parents have quickly learned from this year’s long donation list and increased frequency of car washes and bake sales, it really may take a village to run the local school.” I have experienced firsthand for the past five years how much the donation lists have increased. From only having to purchase school supplies for my son, I now also purchase supplies for the classroom just to ensure my child has all the tools he would need in order to get his education. When my son first started school, I remember his school supply list requested only for a couple of pencils, erasers, and color pencils. Now his list has contains his personal school supplies and donations of hand sanitizer, paper towels, computer paper, lined paper, packs of pencils, packs of erasers, white board markers, and the list goes on. I honestly do not mind, but what about the other parents who cannot afford it? Just this previous year I got close with a parent whose child was also in my son’s class. I remember her asking if I would mind for her to purchase the “not so expensive items” from the list because she was tight on funds. I could see in her facial expression that she was embarrassed to ask the question, but without adequate financing what are we to do as parents to ensure our children receive the tools they need for their education? We dig into
In 2011 while Texas was still under the leadership of Governor Perry, 5.4 billion dollars were cut from educational spending, leading to overcrowded rooms and leaving out students from attending Pre-K (Michels). A study from the Texas Education Agency showed that students who attended Pre-K outperformed students on their math and reading tests versus those who did not attend regardless of socioeconomic status. The aftermath of policies cutting down on educational funding are slowly showing their aftermath, and if something is not done to solve those problems, then it can be assured that a great downfall to the state of Texas will be seen.
Since last spring, Philadelphia school district leaders have been sounding the alarm about this year’s fiscal budget. Even after months of discussions and headlines, schools have opened with fewer resources than last year. On March 28th the School Reform Commission approved a lump sum budget which showed a need for an additional $220 million in revenue in order to provide schools with same resources as the “wholly insufficient” 2013-14 school year (McCorry). There will be many inadequate funding impacts on the quality of the education. Classroom resources would be stripped to untenable levels. The district would reduce as much as $2.2 million funding to the districts’ multiple pathways to graduation program which affects estimated 300 students. Another $1.5 million could be reduced from the elimination of preparation and professional development time for teachers at the district’s high needs promise academies. The district’s building maintenance budget could have reduction in amount of $9.6 million. Schools will be cleaned less frequently as a result. Building maintenance will also be curtailed as a result. District’s school police budget could also have reduction in amount of $2.4 million. School police officer vacancies will be unfilled, leaving an additional 27 elementary schools to share an officer.
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While
“Shrinking state and local education budgets matched with the added pressure of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which sets rigid standards in reading and math that schools must achieve in order to receive federal funding, have created a new challenge for districts” (Van Harken).
Due to financial issues, any districts hardest hit had no choice but to move around resources to make up the difference in their actual spending and funds provided by the state due to the Class Size Reduction (CSRe) experiment in California. While accountability was not intended to so strongly influence what
To get to this point, Massachusetts had to completely change its educational reform. To achieve a better outcome for the system, school investment had to be doubled. The current total expenditure in Arizona’s K-12 education is clearly not enough. If a real progress wants to be made, a larger amount of funding should be invested. Increasing the amount invested in Arizona’s K-12 education will allow the state government to
On November 8th, 2016, the Public School Facility Bonds Proposition 51 appeared on the ballots for Californians to vote either for or against the issuing of $9 billion toward constructing and improving school facilities for K-12 schools along with community colleges. Proposition 51 aims to split these funds amongst public schools, charter schools, technical education facilities, and community colleges in an effort to modernize California’s school facilities for the better. This proposition was the first education bond to appear on the ballot since 2006. While there are obvious ramifications for passing Proposition 51, I personally support this initiative because improving our school facilities would not only uphold the standard of providing quality education for students, but it would ensure that they would reach their maximum potential by having the resources and facilities to succeed. Without these bonds, California’s schools could have the potential of having hazardous environments for students if structures are not upheld.
Oklahoma as of today is ranked 49th nationally in per-pupil expenditures and ranked 48th in teacher pay (Klein 2). Putting Oklahoma as one of the worst states to be educated in the United States. “Oklahoma is consistently ranked near the bottom for education funding and teacher pay” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth And Job Creation” 3). When there are state cuts that need to be made, the departments of education are one of the first that usually tend to suffer. Since the 2008 economic crisis, Oklahoma has continued to cut the budget for education; even though the economy has since then gotten better (Perry). Budget cuts in education affect all parts of the education process for the students. “Some school districts have ordered teacher layoffs and shorter sessions” (“Oklahoma Makes the Poor Poorer” par 4).Schools are now struggling to keep their heads above water. Each year from the budget cutting, schools have had to lay off teachers, cut entire programs, and have limited resources used to educate the students. Even the teachers’ retirement system is suffering, being one of the top poorly funded pension programs nationally (Ash par 3). Seeing as that the schools have to cut down classes and programs, administration has had no other choice than to increase class size, overwhelming teachers tremendously. “Oklahoma has 1,500 fewer classroom teachers and 40,000 more students since 2008-2009” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth
Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare
California's 2.4-million junior school understudies may find it less requesting to get classes now that voters have attested a cost measure to hold government supported guideline, powers said Wednesday. With the achievement of Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30, which will by the way raise the state bargains evaluation and compensation charges on high laborers the system will get about $210 million in additional financing and have the ability to serve around 20,000 more understudies in the midst of the academic year, new junior schools Chancellor Brice Harris said in the midst of a media directions. The structure's 112 junior schools had been reeling from state financing cuts of $809 million since 2008, with course offerings cut by right around
Budget cuts in schools cause turmoil and stress among the students and faculty. Drastic changes in the budgets have caused schools to negatively impact the people around them. With the lack of funding, schools are facing difficult decisions on what to do to stay within their budget. Supervision is facing much scrutiny on how to handle the lack of funding in their school districts. A solution needs to be made to improve the distribution of funding to our schools in order to keep them operating and thriving for our children to obtain their education. Budget cuts in schools have shown negative effects on employee positions, supplies, extracurricular activities.
Sitting in a desk and being forced to retain information for several hours a day is one of the most excruciatingly boring things that somebody can do. Day after day, millions of young individual across our the country wake up early in the morning and head to an educational institution where they are forced to “learn” about an array of subjects that will most likely never be used after graduation once these former students head into the next chapter of their life. Topics that are taught such as classical literature and trigonometry will most likely not be used by a majority of the population after they finish their classes. So why then in our American society is there such an emphasis on education and a common desire to increase school budgets
In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,
Public education in the United States is perhaps one of the most critical issues we face as a nation. Once pronouncing the United States as a “nation at risk”, the educational institution began to implement one reform strategy after another. In efforts to improve schooling for K-12 students, education reform has fiddled with class size, revised graduation requirements, and created standardized testing just to name a few. Unfortunately, traditional public schools are still failing to provide students with a quality education. This is disheartening as we learn that the United States lags behind in math and science compared to our international counterparts. It is safe to say that educational reform has spent billions of dollars over the
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a budget which included a $2.9 billion fund increase for schools. However Schwarzenegger broke his promise and took the $2 billion from Education funds just to help him avoid raising taxes. ¡§The initial proposal provided more money for public schools than the previous year, the governor said. But the education community maintains the governor promised public schools some $2 billion more.¡¨# Schools are already having a hard time with money and with Governor Schwarznegger¡¦s poor choices in politics definitely caused much rage and anger from Schools all around. Education is important and his decision making towards his proposal wasn¡¥t helpful it all and may put Education in danger. Meaning students