Financing the Future
The Quest for Educational Equality
"So", writes the immortal Dr. Seuss, "be your name Buxaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!" Unfortunately, unlike the graduating class this speech was addressed toward, many students in today's urban education system are not of to "Great Places", and will never get the chance to move mountains. These students attempt to learn without textbooks, proper laboratories, or even pencil and paper. The schools are falling apart around these children; in some cases sewage continuously floods the halls, the crumbling roof cannot shut out the weather, and there are even gapping holes in classroom walls. It is definitely not "their day".
The problem with our education system finds its roots in funding. We live in a capitalist society where some have the money and others do not. In a poor community, where a family struggles just to put food on the table to feed their kids; the funding necessary to support the schools just is not there. Conversely, in a wealthy community, where the families never go hungry or worry if they will have shelter over their heads, there is a comfortable pool of funds to support their schools. This creates a clear division between the poor schools in urban areas and the wealthier suburban schools.
The Wall Street Journal once wrote that "Money doesn't buy better education…The evidence can scarcely be clearer" (Kozol 133). They argue that the per-pupil spending has increased, while test scores and other student achievements have remained the stagnant. This conclusion, however, was based on the fact that the spending rate had increased in both urba...
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... you will say, 'I don't choose to go there.' With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street." Unfortunately, like so many of our improperly educated, it looks like our schooling systems are going down that "no-so-good street" and we must use our "head full of brains" to turn away and fix the inequalities right before our eyes.
Works Cited
"Addressing Violence in Oklahoma." The Addressing Violence in Oklahoma Coalition. June 1995: pg. 1. Online. Internet. 16 November 1997.
Giuliani, Rudolph. "A vision for education". 11 August 1995.
"It's Not the Money, It's the Principal." Editorial. TIME 27 October 1997: 92.
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1991.
Seuss, Dr. Oh, the Places You'll Go! New York: Random House, Inc., 1990
Gang activity and violence is changing Oklahoma. Since the times when gang activity was first forming, it began causing problems in the surrounding communities. Affiliation with gangs open...
Spencer, Gainey. "Federal Officials Laud Oklahoma's Efforts to Reduce Gang Violence." Journal Record Legislative Report (Oklahoma City, OK) n.d.: Regional Business News. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
In “End Them, Don’t Mend Them,” P.J. O’Rourke vehemently argues that the public school system needs to be shut down and ended for good due to a monumental increase in spending per pupil with no significant standardized test score improvements made in the past forty years. O’Rourke describes his view of a typical public school family that the public school system has marred with quirks and educational flaws to open up his essay. He then contends that putting a child through public school costs a fortune by pointing out that the average cost per pupil from pre-K through 12th grade is $11,749. O’Rourke cites an annual Gallop Poll conducted from 2004-2007 to explain that Americans find insufficient spending to be the top problem with public schools.
Legal Advocacy Network Webinar Series: 83rd Legislative Session Update. (n.d) Retrieved Feb 09 2014, from Texas Council On Family Violence Web Site: https://ce.tcfv.org/index.cfm?pg=semwebCatalog&panel=showSWOD&seminarid=4780
"Publications." UC Davis Health System – Violence Prevention Research Program. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
Frank Johnson, a writer for the National Center for Education Statics, “Disparities in Public School Spending.” Reported in 1995, public education expenditures per student are higher in the nation's smallest districts whereas students receive an average fully adjusted expenditure of $4,862 versus $4,216 in the largest district’s 10,000 students and above. (Johnson 4)
The United States has many conflicts, one of them is funding on Public Education. In fact Public schools are to make every effort to try and help the students with all they can. Some schools have better things to offer to their schools. It depends on the population where the school is located. Do you agree that the public schools should get the funding depending on the population of where they are located? So many things are unfair and we the people do not really have much we can say publicly or even speak up to this situation. Every student should have the same opportunities as someone that goes to a school where tons of money are invested into. Let us focus on tomorrow’s future instead because once we know it the time will come to see these successful students take part of our country and keep us going forward for the better. 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.
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
The article titled “Order in the Classroom” goes in depth into the education system; its flaws, strengths, and what needs mending. Author Neil Postman, an educator of New York University includes his perspective on the education system. One remark by contributor William O’Connor, explains that the education in our schools is not inferior, the schools have been getting inferior students (Postman, 309). The students are not inferior in our education system. If we were to look in depth at some of the issues we hold, maybe that mindset would change. What makes us inferior is the fact that we do not teach our children things they need to know before beginning school, we have a horribly structured school day, we believe that socioeconomic status will change a student’s learning and ability and we believe in punishing students who cause disturbances. These are all very low and hurtful perspectives to hold when discussing education.
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems with schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school system or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement.
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
School funding has always been a debatable topic. Although school funding needs to be increased, there is no proof of academic achievement (Hanushek). Academic researchers have sought to answer the questions of whether education expenditures are correlated with student performance(Hanushek). Hanushek has found that there is no proof of academic achievement towards funding the schools(Hanushek). It depends on how the money is spent, not on how much money is spent(Hanushek). “ There are so many areas of education that require money(Shanker).” When you are able to reduce the size of a classroom you allow the teacher the opportunity to give additional help by spending more time with each individual student(Shanker). Also, higher teacher salaries are very important when it comes to having the best teachers(Shanker). Studies show that raising the city’s basic per-pupil allocation from $9,306 to $11,608 will provide better technology and better teachers(Brown). Smaller classroom size and better teachers have a positive effect ...
All throughout the United States for the past several years, states are “hurting because of falling state revenues,” (Emeagwali), and schools are trying to cope with tremendous budget cuts that are resulting in less funds provided for educational services. These cuts are putting pressure on everyone invested in the education system, including students, teachers and any other administration within them (qtd. in Johnson 2), and the reduced budget is not solely affecting any particular level of schooling either. All levels of education, ranging from primary learning to advanced, have been affected (Emeagwali). Additionally, it is not just one or two states having to adjust their budgets; by 2002, “at least 40 states [had] been forced to consider budget cuts,” and these cuts have taken their toll on the amount of funding designated towards educational opportunities (Feldman). As pressures hit hard on state governments, a rise in educational budget cuts has resulted in deleterious effects on the level of education provided to students. As a result, researchers and infuriated teachers and parents have begun supporting education as it is ignored by government administration.
me on a volunteer project I did in high school. The summer after my junior year
Some states want to have separation when it comes to the income of these schools. States argue that high class, wealthy, school districts should have more money than the lower class districts, because of the tax payers wants or because there are better opportunities for students to grow in the wealthier areas. According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 50 percent of lower end schools are not receiving the amount of money they should get from the state funds (U.S. Department of Education). This is what is preventing school districts in these areas from helping students with their education. The schools are forced to cut back on programs such as extracurricular activities that are suppose to encourage students to be active, or they would have to cut back on supplies where in some cases there are not enough textbooks for each student to have his or her own. The U.S. Department of Education also stated that teachers that are less paid and have less years teaching are often the ones dealing with the students in poverty. (U.S. Department of Education). This only prolongs the problem with children receiving the proper education. If they are taught by teachers who don’t know what they are teaching or those who don’t have enough experience, then the students are not going to learn the correct information or any information at all. While there are some schools