Public Schools: Underfunded and Unequal

    (Image from NHPR)

  

    This week I read a post from the Blog titled “Brooke's A's and F's of Education”. The main takeaway from the post is that the American public school system is experiencing major funding inequality. The most interesting point that the author brought up is that “schools with a lower percent of poverty got more [federal and state funding]”. I found this point particularly interesting because any funding that a school doesn’t receive from the federal government, they must then make up through local funding. This of course means raising taxes for the already impoverished families. And that itself is the root of the inequality. An area that has a higher percentage of impoverished families will have to tax said families more than an area with more financially stable families. 

    I completely agree with the point that the author makes in her blog post. The lack of federal education funding in areas with higher poverty rates cause a feedback loop. A piece of evidence that supports my point comes later on in the blog post when the author states “It’s most common for schools to result to cutting the arts departments or decreasing the number of electives that a student can choose from. But doing this loses a lot of students. It loses their interest in school which ultimately results in a decline in their academic performance.”, This hits the nail on the head in my opinion. When a school loses its funding, the first things to go away are the electives and extracurricular activities. As Brooke states in the quote, this causes academic performance to decrease. The long term effects are obvious, impoverished students go to underfunded schools, they get less education than middle and upper-class students, and then they end up making less money than the better-educated students. The poor education that these students are receiving is what keeps them below the poverty line. Their lack of education closes many doors for these students, especially those who are more artistically inclined.

Furthermore, the funding inequality can be considered the root of more serious problems in an area. When a person has fewer opportunities to express themselves and grow as a person, they may eventually turn to drugs and crime further down the line. These behaviors dig a person into a hole, one that is hard to get out of once you’ve started digging. The correlation between education and social equality deserves its own post, so stay tuned for that one.

At the end of the day, the bottom line is that unequal funding for public schools is a problem that the federal government should take very seriously. If States Governments can set requirements for how students in their schools should be educated, then they should be held responsible for securing the funding to make these requirements happen. The States should also be held responsible for ensuring that every student is given the same opportunities in their academic career.

    Sources:

C, Brooke. "Education's Foundation." Brooke's A's and F's of Education, Blogger,
     13 Dec. 2019, brookesasandfsofeducation.blogspot.com/. Accessed 10 Dec.
     2020.