Why It Is Morally And Financially Favour Many Schools Over Others With Tax Payers Money

Schools lacking social utilities that are needed to promote the academic status of its students is an issue. Whether these utilities should be kept opened or closed is widely debated in most communities. The condition of such schools is an important issue because it determines the future of its students academically. Some issues facing schools include social, public and economical issues; this essay will consider arguments concerning the social, public and economical causes of this problem through the use of Jonathan Kozol's "TITLE OF ARTICLE", as well as the discussion of the reasons why some schools do not receive sufficient funds to care for public schools.

Almost all the family incomes are over $100,000...The incomes in this school represent less than 1 percent of the families in the United States,” (256) compared to working-class families who earn incomes “at or below $12,000” (256). Anyon presents these examples to compare the backgrounds of each school and uses this as logos to persuasively reason her claim that quality of education is offered to people who can afford it. Public schools that working-class and middle-class families can afford do not offer the same education private schools that upper-class and capitalist families can afford. Wealthy children who are privileged get an advantage early on in their education career because they are able to afford better quality teachers and lessons. This varied quality of education found in curriculums is what creates the unequal divide between educated individuals in different social classes. An audience of scholars and teachers would be persuaded by this claim because Anyon’s data transparently shows the uneven distribution of resources and opportunity found in the social class schools.

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.

Expansion of education is closely related to idealistic views of democracy. In developing and wealthy nations, education is valued because it helps the individual mind to develop capabilities. In contrast, education has also been seen as a way to promote equality. Having access to public education, in theory, has the potential to reduce poverty and promote equality. If all are entitled to the same public education, not to mention they are required by law, why do school systems seem segregate their students? Researchers have searched for the answer and have theorized that economic background, tracking, and hidden curriculum are a few things that help contribute to the imaginary lines drawn between students in society.

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.

Kenway’s article Challenging Inequality in Australia: Gonski and Beyond is a critical analysis of how Australian governments have evaluated and responded to the issue of educational disadvantage. The piece primarily focuses its critique on how the Review of Funding for Schooling Final Report (Gonski et al, 2011) recognises, and presents solutions for, educational disadvantage within the national education system. The central argument is that, despite the report’s shortcomings, it should be supported as it emphasises issues of socio-educational disadvantage which urgently need to be addressed. It is noted that the Gonski Report, in its description of the “imperatives” of addressing educational disadvantage, reminds the reader that Australian

Basic schooling should support those who struggle as well as those who excel and it should start as Dr Watson points out, at an early age. However, the 2006 OECD report shows that Australia spends less than 1 per cent on early education (OECD report 2006). Children who don’t have a sound start to academic life are more likely to drop out of school before completing year 12, thus narrowing their chance of employment. A report conducted by the Brotherhood of St Laurence on children aged 16 shows that of those who came from a low income family, only 84 per cent were considering completing year 12, compared to one hundred per cent of those who came of high income parents. Of those planning to finish year 12 and go on to university, a high percentage was attending non government schools. Parental schooling as well as family support has also a huge impact in children’s

It is important for schools to have written policies that specifically deal with social disadvantage and equality. Marginson (n.d, p.4) encourages leaders to create public policy that aspires to raise the general level of scholastic accomplishment over the entire level of learning achievement across all of society, but especially focusing on students who are socially disadvantaged due to belonging to low income families. This means it is important for each school, whether public or private, to be creating policies that encourage diversity within the education system and aim to help those from the poorest communities. Every state in Australia has suburbs that are classed the most disadvantaged in the state. According to Biddle (2013, p.7) some of the most disadvantaged suburbs in each state are as follows: Broadmedows, Victoria (VIC), Busby, New South Wales (NSW), Riverview, Queensland (QLD), Elizabeth North, (SA), North Mandrua, Western Australia (WA), Risdon Vale, Tasmania (TAS), Gray, Northern Territory (NT) and Namadgi, Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Every one of these disadvantaged suburbs contains at least one public primary school. Upon investigation only two schools contain information on their web pages that displays to the public that the school leaders understand and have addressed some of the challenges faced by being located in a low socioeconomic area. The first school website to contain helpful information was Busby Public School website

Now the students are missing out on the curriculum the rest of the country is trying to reach because they need to have the skills to have a demanding job. Schools in a high-income society usually get even more than the curriculum. Private schools have just about everything. They have good materials, good educators, good students, etc. Students in private schools are taught to love learning. “In 90 minutes of observing the private-school class, there were zero interruptions, zero yawns, and zero cell phones”, (Godsey, 2015). Although when Godsey observed that there were zero interruptions in 90 minutes, he later went to a public-school and it ended up being a nearly the opposite observation. “It 's not completely clear how fluent he [the teacher] is in the subject matter, however, because he has been interrupted or distracted by 20 things in 20 minutes: a pencil being sharpened, a paper bag being crumpled and tossed…” (Godsey, 2015). Comparing the private-school to the public-school, the private-school had more opportunities and focus than the public-school, thus creating a better environment for students to learn and be successful. Schools are evidently unequal when comparing them based on the focus, curriculum, and money.

Every one in Australia wants the best education for the individual. The question is which one. Public or Private ? Education is one of the most important factors in determining what a person will become as a member of Australia's society. Because education is so important there are many questions that are asked for which is the better.

Kenway (2013) aims to illustrate in her article how there is a socio-educational advantage (SEA) and disadvantage within the education system. In doing this, she writes how the social segregation between schools on the top and bottom manifests to create issues of inequality. Socioeconomic status is defined broadly in terms of social, cultural and economic resources, the extent to which individuals and groups’ have access to these resources and the relative value held by different individuals and groups. Kenway’s line of argument is in regards to the inequality portrayed within the Report, and shows throughout the article that the Gonski Report does not focus on the effect the socioeconomic status has on the advantage and disadvantage of the educational system.

During the post war era of 1945-1975 the availability of education grew within Australia as it was seen to be “a key means to achieve equality in society” (Welch, 2010, p. 244). In 1973, the Whitlam government’s commitment to this notion was executed through the enlistment of the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools, and the landmark document it produced, known as the Karmel Report (1973). The Karmel Report (1973) was the first significant large scale national report use in Australia to investigate the needs of both government and non government schools, to equalise opportunities in education (McLaren, 2014; Welch, 2010). It identified inequalities in resource distribution, a lack of human

The issue of whether private education is better than public has been debated for many years. Strong advocates of public education feel that children grow and progress better in a mixed environment. Although most private educational institutions do not harbor racial discrimination or discrimination against sexes, they do not have certain classifications that may not suit the masses. For example, a large number of private schools are religious based. Additionally, private school education is not paid for by the state, thus children who attend these facilities generally come from a financially stable background. The danger in this environment is that student

Traditionally Australians have believed in and conveyed the myth of Australia as a fair , egalitarian society without excess wealth or poverty, however we are definitely not a classless society. Australia's education system has been and remains one of the most unequally distributed social resources and could possibly be regarded as the main source of inequality in our society (Encel 1970; Anderson & Vervoorn 1983; as cited in Jamrozik, 2009). Now more than ever, Australia's education system is acting as a kind of 'sorting out' mechanism, allocating people to certain stations within