The Discrepancies In Education Funding

Low funding in performing arts affects many schools around the country. I believe that performing arts helps people stay in school and not dropping out like many people from past generations. Speaking from experience I do not think I would have stayed in school by choice without my passion to participate in band. Marching band and other performing arts outlets create families within a group of people. The solution to this problem I believe is funding the performing arts like the sports are usually funded . The government is doing nothing as of now to fix the problem of low funding in performing arts. “It’s estimated that since 2008, more than 80 percent of schools nationwide experienced cuts to their budgets.” Children who like playing their

The United States has many conflicts, one of them is funding on public education. Despite the fact that funding on public education will not help students succeed academically with the money provided to the schools, every school deserves to get as much money because students will receive more proper education and will be more successful students in the future.

“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

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.

Since the early millennium there has been a call for public school reform. Whether it was a reformation in school funding and where to spend it, there was a need for it nationally. How would it be determined which school district would get the majority of the funding or would it come down to equal funding for all districts. States determine the amount of spending due to many factors such population, the size of the class and also the demographics. According to Mike Maciag on Governing.com, New York is spending more than $20,000 per student each year, counting teacher salaries, but Idaho and Ohio spend about one-third as much. Teachers with additional education and experience see better results in smaller states with less spending per student than those who spent a major amount per student. Additional factors that are listed on governing.com that contribute to state education spending were employee benefits. Benefits include pensions, health insurance and tuition reimbursements (Maciag). Rural areas with a higher populations drive up costs for transportation. Florida’s spending is under the national average but is high in education

A Title I school is eligible to become a Title I School-wide Program when the poverty level, (determined by free and reduced meal counts, Aid for Dependent Children [AFDC], census, or Medicaid) is at or above 40%. "Title I" is the federal program that provides funding to local school districts to improve the academic achievement of disadvantaged students. It is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act first passed in 1965. That Act is reauthorized by Congress from time to time, and often given a new name. It is currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Bush in January of 2002 (Ginsburg 2013). The idea behind No Child Left Behind was the fact that in different regions of the country with different economic and racial backgrounds there was an achievement gap between children of these different groups and something must to be done to fix the problem. The act is voluntary on a state-by-state basis but to receive title I funding the state must be enrolled in No Child Left Behind. The goal of No Child Left Behind was to have every child that attended school in public schools in America would be 100 percent proficient in math and reading by 2014. The public schools that held there standards to the highest quality are rewarded with extra money and the schools whose standards were failing were given less, in a hope to hold schools accountable for the quality of education they were providing. To gauge the schools quality of education participating schools must participate in standardized testing that shows the schools are meeting academic proficiency. In 2012 President Obama announced that states would be able to receive a waiver on the 100 percent proficiency by 2014 part of the act. States that receive a waiver must set state-specific, federally approved goals for education.

A great amount of money is constantly being spent by the United States for the school goers than it is done by any other country around the world. According to estimates, it costs around $11,800 per child in comparison to the $4,000-$5,000 in the others countries under comparison (Hood, n.d.). This excludes the huge amount of money which is spent only on the 10 percent children who opt to afford private school education, America spends approximately $8,000 in the form of public money on every child every year. Still, the country is ranked 27th position on the global ranking list of the educational achievement of school, and this position is below Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico.

In Underfunding for Public School by Marcial Macias, he specifically addresses how are schools going to provide the proper education to students if schools don’t have the proper funding? This question prompts a wide variety of answers and opinions due to the fact that everyone has their own opinion on this query. This question seems to interest the majority of people in the American society. Therefore, I can see many people such as parents reading Macias’s essay.

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

Department of Education identifies issues, institute programs, provide financial aid and collect data to improve education. Findings to improve scores for all students are presented to congress who approve funding and signed into law by the president. To receive funding for programs, schools must comply with the rules and requirements set by the department. The Department of Education program changes and federal aid administration are determined by the current administrations education agenda. The last three presidents had their own ideas how to bolster the education systems, President Clinton had “Goals 2000”, President Bush, “No Child Left Behind” and President Obama, “Race to the Top”. The new administration indications, so far, believe charter schools and 20 million dollars towards voucher programs are the future for school desegregation. How will the biggest changed in federal support impact racial and socioeconomic

Education in the United States already excludes people based on socioeconomic status: the poor are often unable to afford luxuries like college educations, private schools, and tutors. The public education system, however, was supposed to enable lower income students to gain an education comparable to private education. However, there is no comparison between private education and public education, especially when public education is not equitably funded. Beyond differences in education funding from state to state, individual school districts have funding disparity from school to

Public Schools can, undoubtedly, achieve great things by supplementing their budgets with money from corporate sponsorship; however, this activity is dangerous for public schools as it could put them in a position where they would be expected to support a corporation’s politics while possibly being made to forgo convictions for their own standards and ethics. Since the early 1900s, with the influx of immigrants and the increasing number of children enrolling in schools due to lack of employment opportunities, there has been great demand in education reform with regards to laws and funding (Grubb).

I choose to explore the topic of state education performance funding, to better understand its strengths, weaknesses, and viability for the future of higher education funding models. The advent of this type of funding in higher education is a kin to much of the accountability and performance based initiatives imposed upon the p-12 system form the federal government. Programs like "No Child Left Behind" and "Race to the Top" are competitive based systems, created to encourage quantitative educational gains (such as standardized test scores) and tying them to economic benefits to schools, administrates, and teachers.

The federal government has the least influence on changing funding policies due to this being primarily a state issue. Though the average citizen would claim to support equal funding for schools, people in a local community are most concerned about their local schools. Local property taxes have been a major way to fund education in the United States. Some people are not supportive of excess money raised in their district being returned to the state to support other districts. Some people think all districts should receive some form of state aid, which once again supports districts with more local community wealth. Changing how schools are funded is difficult due to people being unaware of how funding differs from state to state, within states, and between districts. Some people hold strong views about maintaining low taxes or are misinformed about the overcoming the poverty cycle which can slow funding changes. Politicians set spending limits. Some politicians are heavily influenced by their donors’ interests. Vouchers further complicate funding for public school districts, more so for poorer districts. It is difficult to shape policy that provides high educational quality to all students given cost of living, special student needs, building and grounds maintenance, transportation, insurance, programs that are expected in certain schools, supply costs and the many other factors that go into funding the educational