A few more days...
Hey all.
Sorry there has been a lack of posting action. It is after all finals week. Almost through though! Anway in place of a post I thouoght I would throw out a little something I have been working on. One of those 3 am papers we all love that are due the next day- what in may lack in logos and organization it makes up for in pathos and intent. Lemme know what you all think...
There are many ways in which inequality is not only perpetuated but also enforced in public education today. There are a striking number of children from all different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds being marginalized on a daily basis for no other reason than for being born where they are and for who they are. These inequities range and vary in severity and cause but all lend in maintaining an unequal public education system in our country.
Funding for public schools is one of the most overt and damaging inequities facing education in the U.S. It is an atrocity when in a nation that spends 50% of its annual discretionary budget ($351 billion more than it's nearest competitor) on military spending and only 10% on education. We have a federal committee handing down national standards while holding back funding for schools that don't make the grade are most likely schools that are under-funded in the first place.
The way in which funding is determined is inherently flawed and does little but perpetuate and reinforce further inequity. Funding for public schools is determined by the district's respective property taxes. The more one pays for one's home, the more tax revenue is allotted to the area school. The more taxes an area takes in, the more it can spend per child. This system well serves students in Bloomfield Hills, a district that spent $12,191 in 2001-2002. But what about students in Allen Park that get $7,068 per year? The difference in spending between Bloomfield Hills and Allen Park is $45, 165,472 per year. Jonathan Kozol suggests that this funding system not only reflects socio-economic status but has racial implications as well. He writes in Savage Inequalities, "Race appears to play a role in this as well according to the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives. People in affluent Farmington, he says, are not going to vote for more taxes so the poor black kids in Ypsilanti can get better reading programs"
Because of the way schools are funded many children are starting off in the hole. We have effectively created an educational caste system in America. If your family has the privilege and the economic resources to live in Bloomfield Hills then you are given a first class education. Subsequently if your family cant afford to live in a wealthy district than you are given a second rate education. Strangely enough both cases are held to the same standard. The funding also plays a role in many other areas of public education such as the employment of teachers. Why would a teacher choose to teach in under funded impoverished schools when given the choice otherwise? Not only are children being cheated of proper learning materials and building conditions conducive to learning, they are being cheated of highly qualified teachers that are being paid better in wealthy school districts.
Kozol said in his presentation at the University of Michigan MEDVED forum "when we rob our poorest children, we rob our entire societ". Thomas Jefferson once said, "No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity". Studies consistently show a positive correlation in about every thing good: economic productivity, health, and low crime rates to name a few. By cheating our nations poor we are cheating ourselves. And if we can not look at it from a moral standpoint (which I fear we have lost the ability) than we should look at it from an economic standpoint. If we level the playing field of education in the U.S. the entire country would benefit. A more educated aggregate would produce more engineers, scientists, doctors, professors, teachers, less crime, and what so many Americans feel ever so important - more consumers.
The fear of every affluent parent is that equal funding in public schools will take away from their children. Instead of than the Robin Hood approach I propose we raise the amount of money spent on under-funded schools rather than lowering money spent on wealthy districts. The U.S. is the most wealthy and powerful country in the world. We have the economic resources to supplement the funding of poor communities to meet the education standards of the wealthy. An educational welfare system if you will. It is a sad nation we live in when we can afford to spend billions of dollars to invade another country while we ignore the needs of the children in our own nation. There is no logical reason as to why we cannot reallocate a portion of the $416 billion dollars we spend annually on the military to the children in our own country who really need it. The U.S spends more on defense than the next 24 closest spenders combined! Is there any sane reason that we cannot afford to buy our children sufficient textbooks? Is there an acceptable answer as to why we rob our nations children of the opportunity at an equal education? No.
Sorry there has been a lack of posting action. It is after all finals week. Almost through though! Anway in place of a post I thouoght I would throw out a little something I have been working on. One of those 3 am papers we all love that are due the next day- what in may lack in logos and organization it makes up for in pathos and intent. Lemme know what you all think...
There are many ways in which inequality is not only perpetuated but also enforced in public education today. There are a striking number of children from all different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds being marginalized on a daily basis for no other reason than for being born where they are and for who they are. These inequities range and vary in severity and cause but all lend in maintaining an unequal public education system in our country.
Funding for public schools is one of the most overt and damaging inequities facing education in the U.S. It is an atrocity when in a nation that spends 50% of its annual discretionary budget ($351 billion more than it's nearest competitor) on military spending and only 10% on education. We have a federal committee handing down national standards while holding back funding for schools that don't make the grade are most likely schools that are under-funded in the first place.
The way in which funding is determined is inherently flawed and does little but perpetuate and reinforce further inequity. Funding for public schools is determined by the district's respective property taxes. The more one pays for one's home, the more tax revenue is allotted to the area school. The more taxes an area takes in, the more it can spend per child. This system well serves students in Bloomfield Hills, a district that spent $12,191 in 2001-2002. But what about students in Allen Park that get $7,068 per year? The difference in spending between Bloomfield Hills and Allen Park is $45, 165,472 per year. Jonathan Kozol suggests that this funding system not only reflects socio-economic status but has racial implications as well. He writes in Savage Inequalities, "Race appears to play a role in this as well according to the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives. People in affluent Farmington, he says, are not going to vote for more taxes so the poor black kids in Ypsilanti can get better reading programs"
Because of the way schools are funded many children are starting off in the hole. We have effectively created an educational caste system in America. If your family has the privilege and the economic resources to live in Bloomfield Hills then you are given a first class education. Subsequently if your family cant afford to live in a wealthy district than you are given a second rate education. Strangely enough both cases are held to the same standard. The funding also plays a role in many other areas of public education such as the employment of teachers. Why would a teacher choose to teach in under funded impoverished schools when given the choice otherwise? Not only are children being cheated of proper learning materials and building conditions conducive to learning, they are being cheated of highly qualified teachers that are being paid better in wealthy school districts.
Kozol said in his presentation at the University of Michigan MEDVED forum "when we rob our poorest children, we rob our entire societ". Thomas Jefferson once said, "No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity". Studies consistently show a positive correlation in about every thing good: economic productivity, health, and low crime rates to name a few. By cheating our nations poor we are cheating ourselves. And if we can not look at it from a moral standpoint (which I fear we have lost the ability) than we should look at it from an economic standpoint. If we level the playing field of education in the U.S. the entire country would benefit. A more educated aggregate would produce more engineers, scientists, doctors, professors, teachers, less crime, and what so many Americans feel ever so important - more consumers.
The fear of every affluent parent is that equal funding in public schools will take away from their children. Instead of than the Robin Hood approach I propose we raise the amount of money spent on under-funded schools rather than lowering money spent on wealthy districts. The U.S. is the most wealthy and powerful country in the world. We have the economic resources to supplement the funding of poor communities to meet the education standards of the wealthy. An educational welfare system if you will. It is a sad nation we live in when we can afford to spend billions of dollars to invade another country while we ignore the needs of the children in our own nation. There is no logical reason as to why we cannot reallocate a portion of the $416 billion dollars we spend annually on the military to the children in our own country who really need it. The U.S spends more on defense than the next 24 closest spenders combined! Is there any sane reason that we cannot afford to buy our children sufficient textbooks? Is there an acceptable answer as to why we rob our nations children of the opportunity at an equal education? No.
posted by Griff197 at 12:24 PM
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