Lack of Education Funding

1369 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: education inequality theory

Within the federal government’s budget education is among the most important yet in the year of 2012 the federal government only spent $107.6 billion out of 3.7 trillion which amounts to 3% on education. Compared to other funding categories in the government’s fiscal year of 2012's budget it's clear to see that education isn’t as important to the government officials as they would like us to believe. Many Americans today are lead to believe that education is important to government officials and it receives an adequate amount of funding because they don't know how much funding is put into the other categories of the budget. The funding put into education in the year 2012 is only 1/8 of social security spending and 1/5 of Medicare spending. Although most education funding comes from state and local tax this $107.6 comes from federal policy makers who say they will make education a top priority (Putting a Number on Federal Education Spending, 3). The number one funding principle states that varying levels of education funding is required to provide equal education opportunities (The Fairness Principles, 7); but how will students be able to do well in school if they don't have the amount of resources they need because there is little education funding ? To get rid of this problem more funding needs to be made from the federal government, equity must be focused on over equality when funding, and property tax laws shouldn't affect the amount of funding put into local schools.
By focusing on equality in the school systems we overlook the deeper problem of unequal education opportunities because of a lack of resources. Adequate funding isn’t the definitive solution to public education’s problems, but it is a necessary determining facto...

... middle of paper ...

...o provide equal and adequate education opportunities (Baker, 3).The existence of funding inequities isn’t a new problem in the education world but the main thing is nobody has stepped up and proposed solutions to the problem.

Works Cited

Baker, Bruce D. “Center for American Progress.” Center for American Progress. Katie Peters,

19 Sept.2012. Web.15 Dec.2013.

"National Report Card - Introduction." National Report Card - Introduction. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

Sciarra, David G. “School Funding Disparities Persist, Analysis Shows.” Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 19 June 2013.Web. 19 June 2013.

"The Facts." Funding Philly Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

"The Fairness Principles." National Report Card - Introduction. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

"The Federal Education Budget." Federal Education Budget Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Unequal Education in America: Urban vs Suburban Education

    2470 Words  | 5 Pages

    The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...

    Read More

  • When Class Became More Important To A Child's Education Than Race Summary

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are a lot of people giving efforts on closing the gap so all children have equal opportunity to be the best the can in the classroom. School reformers have been focusing on evidence showing that high quality teachers and schools have been helping to close the gap. Most of these efforts have come far short of closing the gap completely and they don’t address how to deal with the growing divide between the middle and top class. Even though we have found ways to help with this gap we still have a long way to go before there is equal opportunities for

    Read More

  • Inequality in American Education: A Contradiction to Actual Freedom

    2728 Words  | 6 Pages

    equal education; however, through family income, race, and gender we can see that not much has

    Read More

  • Funding Inequalities

    667 Words  | 2 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • School Funding in the Modern Era

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    School funding is a recurring issue in the modern era. Debates ranging from give schools more money, to get rid of the system in place and reform a new idea have been plaguing the world over the years. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in 2009, provided more than $100 billion in education aid to offset budget cuts..” (School Finance). Later, “Congress provided an additional $10 billion in 2010 to avert mass teacher layoffs (Education Week, "Total Recovery Act")” (School Funding). These numbers are just a sample of the struggles in school funding, that is costing a ton of money to keep afloat. “There are many ways schools fund varying from state to state and even school to school. Income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other fees provide 48 percent of the elementary and secondary school funds. 44 percent of local districts draw money from local property taxes. The federal government makes up approximately 8 percent of state education budgets. These funds are a dealt out on a per-student basis, and categorically to ensure enough resources for each special program or facility” (School Funding). These funds play a huge role in every student's education, either positive or negative. The three main areas that need to be addressed in the school budget are extracurricular funding, building and equipment maintenance, and last but not least staff funding.

    Read More

  • Why Do People Living In Poverty?

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    A key to ending the cycle of poverty, is educational equity. In America today, public education is unequal racially and socioeconomically (Honda 11). Internationally, America is not excelling academically. When looking closely at American student’s Program for

    Read More

  • Using Sociology to Bridge the Opportunity Gap

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before entering into defense of the argument, it is important to communicate that the current situation is one which demands reform. It must be understood that the state of the public school system is not simply confined to the domain of education but is instead very much interrelated with the distribution of wealth. The current opportunity gap-which affords those who are middle and upper class greater access to higher quality education-is the cause of the inequality seen in the distribution of income. “Children born into the top fifth of the income distribution have about twice as much of a chance of becoming middle class or better in their adult years as those born into the bottom fifth (Isaacs, Sawhill, & Haskins, 2008)”.

    Read More

  • The Failure of Public Education in America

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    What is the real meaning behind (NCLB) No Child left behind, what is the main purpose? The NCLB was put in place to give students the chance to receive a fair education no matter what the race, gender, income background, or even if they have a disability. It is made up of four major parts accountability, flexibility, research-based education, and parent options. Students are to be tested on their math and reading/language arts from the 3rd grade to the 8th grade only being tested once while attending high school within the four years.

    Read More

  • inequity in education

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Racial Inequality In Education

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    The means of justifying these inequalities are important for the entire world. Education played and will always play a big role in everyone’s lives. Equality in education will eventually guarantee every person a better position in society. Educational inequality is the difference in learning effectiveness and results as faced by students with varying backgrounds. The effects of educational inequality are not only left within the circles of education, but also remain further to have an impact on other life aspects. All over the world, there have been unending calls to reform education at each level. With various causes that are very much connected to society, history and culture, the educational inequality has apparently been one of the most difficult challenges to address. Regardless of the challenges faced in removing educational inequality, education has continued to be a very important part of society with a big expectation of moving it forward. In the current-day America, very many disadvantaged children have continued to grow up missing key skills. Discrimination has continued to persevere in educational achievement between racial issues. Above all, low performance levels among these disadvantaged children have over the years been responsible for the long-term issues, especially in such an society with higher levels of skills and a failing incomes offered to those people that are less-skilled.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On School Funding

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Having reviewed the facts from both sides, those who are for additional funding for education and those who are against, there is truth to both sides. Additional funding, as long as there is strict accountability, will help all students from various economic backgrounds to have an opportunity to receive the very best education. The challenge at hand is for politicians, educators, and families to determine a fair and balanced approach to implementing measures of accountability. Overall, the poor academic achieving students do need funding just as much as anybody. School funding needs to be increased, but there needs to be accountability as well.

    Read More

  • Social Justice In Education

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects of Budget Cuts in Education

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay About Social Injustice

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people don’t want to believe that we are living in a social injustice environment in this country. They choose to ignore the fact that rich are getting richer while the poor are just getting poorer. The rich public schools are giving their students the necessary opportunities to live a decent life while the poor students are left out and have to struggle for those opportunities. The social injustice is visible to every citizen in this country and it continuing to grown; however, there is a few solutions to minimize and possibly to solve the social injustice problem we have in American. One of them is give equal education in all public schools so everyone can have an equal opportunities in getting the jobs and careers they choose. Second

    Read More

  • Equality of Opportunities in Education

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    In terms of talking about the accessibility of school funding, equality of opportunity would be where all public schools are distributed the same amount money for their school. Once the money is distributed, it should then be spread evenly amongst areas in dire need of help. Money could be dispersed to help aid in special needs for kids, in support the arts, music, and sports programs, or for technology that may be a useful teaching tactic. Most importantly, this funding would be given to the areas and programs that were struggling, and where students would benefit the most. If a school had an outstanding arts and music program, but their special education department was lacking, money should be given to the education department to help make improvements and provide the teachers and students with the proper resources.

    Read More

More about Lack of Education Funding

Open Document