inequity in education

In America, the idea of equality between people is important, it is in fact, written into the Constitution. However, for years the American educational system has operated in a completely inequitable manner due, in part, to the way that schools are funded, mostly through local or property taxes. The differences between schools in wealthy neighborhoods and those in poor neighborhoods are, many times, reminiscent of the differences between white schools and black schools before the end of segregation. While there is a desperate need to fix this broken system, there has been little progress. The issue is so divisive and the problem so big and entrenched in American laws, many politicians refuse to even attempt to come up with a solution. The answer lies with the federal government. To make American public schools equitable the federal government needs to step up its role in funding and administering the schools.

Education has long been at the top of Americas list of responsibilities to its citizens. In 1797 Benjamin Franklin said:

Nothing can more effectually contribute to the cultivation and improvement of a country, the wisdom, riches, and strength, virtue and piety, the welfare and happiness of a people, than a proper education of youth, by forming their manners, imbuing their tender minds with principals of rectitude and morality, [and] instructing them in...all useful branches of liberal arts and science. (Hochschild & Scovronick, 2003).

This reverence for education is quite evident when you consider that according to the National Center for Education Statistics "“Total expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools in the United States amounted to 638 billion in 2009-10” (National Center for Education Statistic...

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...s no right to education in its Constitution, means that its role in education is relegated to sitting on the sidelines. In order to better serve all its citizens, which is the primary purpose of any democratic government, it needs to play a much larger role in education. To reduce reliance on property taxes, federal funds need to supplant not supplement education funding at high poverty schools. While more bureaucracy and control conflicts between local, state and the federal government would be a counterproductive consequence of greater federal involvement, it is necessary that education funding be centralized. The truth is this, the state and local governments do not have the capability or the resources to fix the funding problem but the federal government does. America would be remiss to not allow the federal government step in and do the job it was created to do.