Policies Regarding School Finance Litigation

With landmark Supreme Court decisions in regards to education such as Brown v Board of Education, which made segregation within schools illegal, one would be inclined to believe that modern schools are void of any inequality. However, at a deeper glance, it is apparent that there is a glaring inequality within public school systems at the national, statewide, and even district-wide level. Such an inequality has drastic results as the education one receives has a high correlation to the college they will attend, and the job they will work. It is in society's best interest that public school systems be improved to equally supplement students with the tools necessary to succeed. While the public school system aims to reduce the inequality within it, they have proven ineffective in guaranteeing children of all races and economic classes an equal education.

The book “Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents” is Waldo E. Martin’s observation on not just the landmark case of Brown v. Board but also the institutionalized racism that was overcome to get there. It also documents other cases that Brown v. Board built upon to get the decision that challenged “separate but equal”. In this text Martin gives a glimpse into not just what the court order did from a legislative standpoint, but from a human standpoint, what happened to the people, community, and society in general both prior and in the wake of the of this monumental decision.

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case that was decided by the Supreme Court of America in 1954. It is a case that is believed to have brought to an end decades of increasing racial segregation that was experienced in America’s public schools. The landmark decision of this case was resolved from six separate cases that originated from four states. The Supreme Court is believed to have preferred rearguments in the case because of its preference for presentation of briefs. The briefs were to be heard from both sides of the case, with the focus being on five fundamental questions. The questions focused on the attorneys’ opinions about whether Congress viewed segregation in public schools when it ratified the 14th amendment (Benoit, 2013). Changes were then made to the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

The United States is a country based on equal opportunity; every citizen is to be given the same chance as another to succeed. This includes the government providing the opportunity of equal education to all children. All children are provided schools to attend. However, the quality of one school compared to another is undoubtedly unfair. Former teacher John Kozol, when being transferred to a new school, said, "The shock from going from one of the poorest schools to one of the wealthiest cannot be overstated (Kozol 2)." The education gap between higher and lower-income schools is obvious: therefore, the United States is making the effort to provide an equal education with questionable results.

The Brown v. Board of Education of 1954 is known for desegregating public schools in the U.S. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled “in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal had no place” (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954). It was the 1st major educational policy. The Court’s decision in Brown created not just desegregation strategies, but also instructional approaches such as Title I programs, magnet schools, and bilingual and multicultural education (Contreras & Valverde, 1994).

The Ultimate goal of Education system is one of the most frequently asked questions from all stakeholders and their answer mainly depends on their different prospective. David Labree (1997) in his article “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational Goal” shows how the three main purposes, which interact and interfere sometimes, have shaped the American education goals, throughout out its practices and policies, democratic equality, social efficiency and Social mobility. On the same track, Nickols and Cuenca (2014) found in their work “Two Roadmaps, One Destination: The Economic Progress Paradigm in Teacher Education Accountability in Georgia and Missouri” That teacher preparation programs influence by what they called “the economic progress paradigm” (p. 457), which is the social efficiency that Labree (1997) had pointed out. Considering the fact that, which of the three schooling purposes is the most important, I believe the social mobility to be given number one priority, and to be considered among the other two that can benefit, both individuals and public.

     Will Durant, a businessman and the founder of General Motors, once said, “Education is the transmission of civilization.” Unfortunately, education is still one of the most deliberated and controversial issues in the United States. Thus far, the privilege or right to receive education has not attained the level of equality throughout the nation; poor districts obtain less educational funding while rich districts obtain more, creating an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas.

Once again, he finds children that are forced to learn in a facility that isn’t fit to be inhabited, much less a school. He the visits P.S. 79, which is extremely overcrowded, After viewing these two decrepit schools, he visits Riverdale, P.S. 24. Because of the property value of the houses around Riverdale, the school gets a lot more money than either P.S. 261 or P.S. 79. This chapter focuses on how money is divided up to schools. It appears that the value of the homes in the district far a school determines the amount of money that in invested into that school. Kozol emphasized the importance of financial need in the school system therefore giving a positive outlook on many of the schools. He incorporated the fact that values and income does determine the level of a child’s education.

4) Facts: Since the verdict made by the Supreme Court on the Brown v. Board of Education case, little enactment was made in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina’s school structure. There are 107 schools altogether, in which the student population is 84000. Within the structure, there are 21 schools in which 14000 African Americans attend that are 99% of their race only. The rest of the African American students, about 10000 students, attend integrated school. In this case, the plaintiff, Swann, had come forth to bring the board of education to the court. It all started when Dr. Darius Swann, professor at Johnson C. Smith University, wanted to enroll his child to an almost all white school closer to his home, which he was rejected.

Equality of Opportunity is the idea that all persons in a society are given equal opportunities to achieve educational and financial equality by having the chance to enter any occupation or social class. Schools play a paramount role in providing equality of opportunity as they are responsible for its implementation. Many issues exist for schools to provide equality of education due mostly to a family’s economic condition. Contributory factors such as a student’s cultural background, which test model is implemented at a given school, discrimination in the labor market that disrupts the achievement of equality of opportunity, all affect the school’s ability to implement equality of opportunity. Another important factor is the inequality between schools that contribute to the inequality of opportunity.

Throughout history there have been various influential court cases involving Education. These important cases and their outcomes act as milestones on the road to a successful education System in the United States. Topics such as race, religion and gender equality within schools have all been vigorously debated upon and have ultimately played major roles in shaping today 's education system. By examining civil rights and acting upon these rights many important educational court cases have allowed many students a greater chance for efficient and equal learning opportunities in the classroom.

Throughout American history, schools have been segregated by race due to a common idea in society that although schools are separate they are still equal. Regardless of this belief, schools across the country were far from equal. Certain states made it illegal for black people to get an education resulting in most of them being illiterate. Plessy Vs. Ferguson created the idea of separate but equal in 1896, but doctrine was overturned in 1954 by the controversial Brown Vs. Board decision, resulting in the beginning of a new change that would be made in American schools. This decision is a symbolic moment in the history of American education because the shift in schools. The decision is still fundamental today due to the fact that segregation has now become about issues such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, and not just race. It is vital to understand this concept of segregation in schools so teachers can learn how to avoid segregation resulting in an inclusive class.

Rose ponders the reasoning behind the heavy publicity of education in relation to economic stability but, he does understand that their is correlation for their must be a way to measure performance on test in their relation to economic stability. That being said, although the coronation exist is not to necessary be accounted for, for their are many other important aspects of education separated from the number of zeros on educational funding. I believe that economy and education do have a correlation, and I agree with Rose that it should not be the main topic of discussion when it comes to improving our classrooms. That being said, I believe that rather than the issue of the correlation of the funding, the equal distribution of resources, including economic means, is something that would provide a larger correlation of educational success. My junior year in high school, I was a Teacher’s Aide in an Algebra One BiLingual class.

that the basic rights to equal school access eventually became a reality, but that equal

In the United States, public schools get their funding from their respective state. As a student, it can be seen as concerning when one compares how much states spend on their schools. Many schools are inadequate in both an aspect of safety and effectiveness of the learning environment. As a result of inadequate subsidy across America, schools resort to taking drastic measures. Not only are the unequal sources of subsidy a difficulty, but the concept and execution of budget cuts also exacerbate the issue. In order to give every student in America equal opportunities for success, funding should be controlled by the federal government with a policy that enforces equity rather than equality. This is also a viable option that could be carried