The Battle Between Government And Education

money for both school and states, because school can cut down the number of teachers to hire and

“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

Kozol (1991) explained in his book how one would think that because they live in a free nation and they are entitled to a free education, that they would receive the same as everyone else. Unfortunately, our country was set up with a tax-based formula for school funding. It’s a complicated formula and most people never think to scrutinize it. Basically, taxes based on the values of homes are levied. It is an equal tax in all districts so it is equitable. Ironically, because the properties in poor areas are worth far less than in affluent areas, there is always a shortage. The Shortage in funding creates a significant difference in teacher quality, curriculum and resources Former Secretary John King (2016) explained how schools with highly concentrated Blacks and Latinos are less likely to offer advanced

Public school funding is unfair and unequal in most states. However, more concerning is out of the 49 million children in public schools, students living in poverty are affected the most. There are wide disparities in the amount spent on public education across the country, from a high of $18,507 per pupil in New York, to a low of $6,369 in Idaho (Baker, Sciarra, & Farrie, 2015). The question that all stakeholders should be asking is school funding fair?

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.

Public education is under funded, especially in the state of Alabama. I attended public school in the state of Alabama and I experienced this first hand in my elementary and high school classrooms. Low funds for the arts department and many basic school necessities are just some of the areas that are affected by the low funding. In the 2012-2013 school years, Alabama had over 744,637 students enrolled in a total of 1,637 schools. Alabama’s school funding has gone down 14% since 2008. Many school systems have to spend additional money from local revenue on top of what the state provides because it is not enough. Alabama public schools are under funded and it is a problem that is affecting classrooms across the

This led us to a total cuts of $862.0 million, “equaled to 13.6 percent” of the revenue that Pennsylvania school districts gain from the state budget in2010-2011. Moreover, the decline in state aid affected the districts with greater ratio of children living in poverty more than other districts (2). This cuts have a great effect on many areas such as:

A couple of years later in 2011, lawmakers passed House Bill 1, which cut an astonishing 4 billion dollars in education funding and another 1.3 billion in special program funding from the Foundation School Program, the source of education dollars for school districts across the state. This was very unpopular among education advocates and teacher groups, and caused public outcry throughout the state. This radical reduction forced school districts to operate without millions of dollars in funding they were initially depending on. School districts were forced to cut special education teachers, teacher aides, bus drivers, and slowed or stopped school construction projects (NPR). My school district was forced to lay off or eliminate administrative and teaching positions in order to make sure the district budget is balanced. Stipends for bilingual teachers and other employees who take on extra duties were reduced or eliminated as well. Teacher stress and class sizes increased which made for a less than conducive teaching and learning environment. It wasn’t all bad news during that congressional session however. Lawmakers also passed Senate Bill 6, which allowed school

Education is the essential foundation for the progressing of our nation as well as the stimulation for our children. Now, as some may or may-not know that learning gives forth children the accessibility to succeed in physical, intellectual, and even emotional endeavors. Education tends to incline us to widen the door towards attainment in the future. As individuals receive an education, they are more capable to obtain better employment. Views tend to be various to our educational system. Throughout America’s history, students, parents, educators, and government authority have discussed what changes must be made in America’s public school system. We agree changes need to be made to reach goals that will prepare our future for the future properly. However, the voices and cries for positive changes have yet to be heard. Sometimes, many of those changes are established far too quickly for results to be thoroughly examined. The most popular cries for education changes comes from Geoffrey Canada’s stating that “billions of dollars spent on testing, the data cannot be used, because the results come back too late (Canada, 2013). Now, the average person may not be too alarmed, but when companies, like Microsoft or Apple, has to hire computer programming engineers from other countries to fill positions since American’s are academically unqualified, which brings this education system to light on such topics (Moore, 34-36). In all, the public school system is

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

After this, we see urbanization is a direct factor. This is because as more people move to cities, the more money funding they have in that area for schools. If you have 5,000 students attending a school, they are going to get more state funding than a school of 50. State spending per pupil on schools overall as a model is very important because the more resources you have per student the more you can teach them. You can get better equipment, better materials, better teachers, the list goes on and on.

In today’s society, we realize the importance of education and how it will benefit all to have an adequate education that will give the best opportunities. However, individual states have jurisdictions over the curriculum and funding over the public education. This means that California students may have a higher academic standing than Utah. The 14th Amendment and other various versions have brought upon the issue of equal, free and adequate education Yet, it has been denied several times because it is not federal jurisdiction and they has no power in this issue. The main reason the Amendment is being denied because of the definition of what is a citizen. Is someone a citizen because they were born in the U.S.A. or moving to U.S.A. and

The sad reality of it all is that gross funding inequities continue to persist in the U.S and no one seems to be working steadily to rid this problem. When putting funding into education equity should be focused on rather than equality. According to the National Report card there are core fairness principles that must be followed to maintain equal opportunity. The 3rd principle states that the level of funding in a district should increase relative to the level of concentrated student poverty rate. Therefore state finance systems should provide more funding to districts serving larger share of students in poverty (Is School Funding Fair? 7). Examining the school district of Philadelphia one could see that this principle is not being followed. The No Child Left Behind Act was created in 2001 to ensure that no later than 12 years after 2001 (2013) all students will meet the states standards. The act

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,

Do you ever hear those stories about children complaining to their parents about grades? They say it isn’t there fault, but it’s the teachers faults. Normally the parents don’t believe them, but maybe they should start too. Our school system is failing our bright, outstanding students. At least our students should be bright, and outstanding. That’s what our schools assessment tests say, but is that our students excelling in those tests or is it our teachers profound use of an eraser. Are schools cheating the government? Our schools are dumbing down classes so the students get good grades to pass on to the school board to pass. In their defense in order to keep the schools running they need government money, and the better the school is doing the more money they receive. Is it morally correct? Yes, no, maybe so depending on the person I suppose. I think the real question is switching answers, dumbing down our classrooms truly benefitting our students?