The Importance Of School Choice In The United States

One of the greatest differences among public schools is the funding they receive. Public schools across the country have incredibly varied amounts of capital dedicated to them which in turn leads to a disparity in the quality of education a student will receive at these schools. The race of a student, the location they live in, and the wealth of their family greatly correlate to the level of education they will receive. As Harvard professor Jennifer L. Hochschild notes, “Districts with a lot of poor students have lower average test scores and higher dropout rates...The highest spending districts report high test scores, and some of the lowest spending districts report the lowest test scores” (“Social Class in Public Schools.”). The students who attend schools that receive less funding typically obtain an education that is lesser in comparison to schools that receive more money. The inequality in funding within a state has a severe impact on the variation of education quality. In the case of Connecticut, “The district that spends the most provides almost twice as much per student as the district that spends the least” (“Social Class in Public Schools.”). As a result, the schools that receive less funding work with more outdated textbooks and equipment, while schools with more funding can afford to buy new equipment and provide a better environment for the

“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

This means that the good schools can only take in a few students, the proverbial tip of the ice berg. The rest of the students are relegated to schools in which their parents have no faith at all. This is tantamount to dooming these students to failure and being completely unable to do anything about it. The decline in the level of education in the public school system has prompted a lot of parents to opt for private schooling for their children. The problem with this is, of course, finances. Another problem facing the schooling system is the lack of streamlining of services. A comparison is drawn between the schools in the poor neighborhoods and their equivalents in the rich neighborhoods. The difference is astronomical. There is absolutely no coherency between the levels of services being provided in these institutions. Thus, the education system appears to be skewed. This is a worst case scenario situation for a system that is supposed to provide children with equal opportunities at a better life in the

Children should not need to go to different/special school just because they have additional needs or disability. They should be able to attend main stream school, which should be adapted to meet their needs, and if they need support the school should ensure they have the resources e.g. one to one teaching assistants etc.

With the many diverse characteristics of the Unites States, perhaps the most troubling is the rising gap in the distribution of wealth. As the wealth gap in the United States rises exponentially, the gap in the quality of public schooling rises with it. For a country that prides itself in prestigious outlets of education, the system of public schooling seems to be miserably failing. Public education, a system that some fight to destroy while others fight to preserve, is perhaps the only source of academic opportunity for many individuals living in this country. The fact that someone can live in a certain area and receive a higher quality of public education than someone else living in a different area in the same country—even in the same state—is a problem that should not trouble a ‘progressive’ democratic society. Unfortunately, areas of lower socioeconomic status receive much less funding than areas of higher socioeconomic status, where property taxes account for 45% of funding in public school districts. Naturally, the impoverished residents of poor neighborhoods pay a harsh price in this situation, sending their children to an underfunded school with little to no resources, where sometimes teachers must supply the classroom from their own pocket. As Rogerson and Fernandez note, “a system that allows the accidents of geography and birth to determine the quality of education received by an individual is inimical to the idea of equal opportunity in the marketplace”

Public School Choice -Students may go to any public school in their surrounding district this giving a better chance to receive a more adequate education

There is also an underlying punishment in the segregation found in education. Schools that black children attend are segregated because they are located in poor neighborhoods. Living in high-poverty neighborhoods for multiple generations adds a barrier to accessing achievement. It is not possible to desegregate schools without desegregating both low-income and high-income neighborhoods. Residential segregation and ongoing poverty have left African Americans in some of the most terrible housing in several of the lowest-resourced communities (Rothstein). Black citizens also suffer from concentrated poverty. About 45 percent of poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty. Only 12 percent of poor white children live in concentrated poverty (Algeron). Children in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty experience more social and behavioral problems, have lower test scores, and are more likely to drop out of school. Part of the difference in educational outcomes likely comes from the different environments black and white children live in during their school years. Black children are far more likely to live in households that are low-income, extremely poor, food-insecure, or receiving long-term welfare support (Ford). Black children are less likely than white children are to live in households where at least one parent has secure employment. In addition, black children have the greatest

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.

One of the biggest arguments for vouchers is that they allow parents to choose what school is right for their child. Parents, in taxes, pay for their children’s education, and they should be able to send their children where they want with their education dollars. These vouchers also allow for the parent to decide what school is best fitting for their child based on their racial, cultural, and religious background. A second argument in favor of the school voucher is that, “Advocates believe that vouchers promote fairness, participatory democracy, and engagement with public debate as well as improved quality of education” (Hochschild & Scovronick, 125). Parents who are unable to afford homes in more prominent neighborhoods are forced to send their children to failing districts because they are unable to afford the tuition costs of private schools. If the voucher program was being used, then lower-class parents would have the opportunity to use their own tax dollars to send their children to a more prominent school.

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

Distribution of resources is a prevalent theme in both films. The documentary Children in America’s Schools displays an ample amount of examples to support the claim that there is an unconscionable difference between the distributions of resources among neighboring districts. William Phillis, a member of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, stated “It is impossible for poor districts (in the state of Ohio) to provide a high quality education because the property wealth is not there to tax” (Hayden, 1996, 5:36). The issue of how schools are funding comes from the creation of “redlining” districts, which based on income and race. Redlining is the Federal Housing Administration’s policy that explicitly refuses “to back

“ 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.

In the country, education for kids K-12 is a lot better than in the cities. Families with small children tend to like enrolling them in a smaller school because it’s quiet and safe for their children, and the teachers are with the same children every day and for years sometimes. However, sending them to a bigger school can get them into the wrong kind of crowds and not get to know all their teachers because of the big diversity there is. In the country the ratio of students to the teacher is lower than the city whereas parents of children in the city have a number of choices available for the education. Children and can often select from a long list of both public and private school districts in urban living. Public schools are often filled with a lot of students and are packed into small classrooms however that help the sports team, music, and other elective programs out. Where on the downfall of smaller schools, there are less options but children are more able to make the

Department of Education, “documents that schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because school districts across the country are inequitably distributing their state and local funds”. (Education, 2011). Students that come from low income families are not given the equal chance to get the education that students from high income families get. If students are not given the tools they need to be educated, then they will have a poor chance of succeeding in the world.

Let’s re-examine the inner city school mentioned above. What are some assumptions about this school? It is a public school, it is in an area with lower incomes, the children and teachers who populate this school are mostly of a singular race or ethnicity, the education they receive may be less than sufficient, the majority of the children will not go on to higher education, it would take too many resources to fix a school in this area. What are some assumptions about a school in the suburbs? It may be public, the surrounding area is mostly middle class families, the teachers and children who populate the school are mostly of a singular race, the education is sufficient or above the current standard, the majority of children will go on to higher education, it is worth the effort to put resources into enhancing the school.