This podcast definitely had more of a give-and-take feel to it; the previous one had much longer monologues of different people giving their accounts which sometimes made it hard to comprehend all of what was being discussed. Additionally, this podcast utilized the perspective of a student, whereas the previous one was mostly adults. Providing us with the perspective of a student allows us to get a first-hand perspective from the students for whom we are trying to reform education.
Another aspect to this podcast which made it more compelling was the interview format. Again, this allowed for it to be much more easily digested and seemed to allow the narrator to steer the podcast in the direction he wanted. Going along with the format of the podcast, I noticed that his one included some background music. While it was very subtle, I thought it was a nice touch to elicit the kinds of emotions that the narrator wanted you to feel.
I feel as though the reforms to help this kind of a situation do not lie in policies that allow students to choose which public school they go to despite their geographic location. This ignores the real issue at hand – that a poorly-funded school still exists and that some children are not getting the quality education they deserve. I think reforms to help correct this issue would start with increasing federal funding and decreasing local funding. The amount of money public school districts receive from federal funds is too small – it leads to local funds making up way too large of a percentage of the total funding for any given district. So, basically, the amount of total funding a district gets is much more susceptible to differences in socioeconomic status based on location. If the burden of public school funding was shouldered more heavily on a federal level, it would create a much larger buffer for poorer areas in terms of how much money they have to spend per student.
Comments
7 responses to “Public School Funding Can’t Be a Local Issue”
This made me think about the documentary “Waiting for Superman;” the part where they compared federal funding for a student versus a prisoner. This proved that the funding is there. I personally think that there would be less prisoners if they had the support and resources in school to help them succeed. So if we can address the root of most youth issues, in schools, then we can flip this cycle on its head. I think even state funding should be raised, considering they have a better idea and control on their own schools. I do agree that funding needs to be a bigger concern, and not a local issue. But because education is a capitalistic market, I am not sure what or who in power could support this change.
Zac,
The point you introduce about swapping some of the funding of schools from local tax revenues to federal tax revenues is very interesting. In my original post I suggested potentially pooling the local or state taxes for schools and then redistributing based on need, but this can be problematic. The solution you introduce would certainly make it so that each individual school’s budget wasn’t so dependent on the generating of local taxes, which seems like would in turn help alleviate the effects of students disappearing from public school to go join charter schools. When the federal budget is looked at, some of the percentages are just absolutely alarming, and in my opinion it is insanely unbelievable that some of the inequities as far as education goes have not been compensated for–especially when you consider that our military budget accounts for over half of everything we spend. It seems clear that our education system might need more federal monetary support, but I do wonder where this change will come from.
I definitely agree with your reform suggestion of increasing federal funding. This was also the idea i presented after listening to the podcast. It is very interesting to me why this issue hasn’t been addressed yet. It seems as if the difference in resources between public schools is a problem that most are aware of and the idea of increasing federal and decreasing local funds seems like the most obvious solution. To go off of what Hannah said above, “Waiting for Superman” does bring up the fact that federal funding for prisoners is overwhelming, so why does this funding not get put towards our schools?
Over the years the amount of money put towards education reform has only increased which leaves me wondering why some of this money isn’t going towards resources in order to close the gap between certain public schools. I do not know exactly how federal funding is divided/rationed out but I do agree with you in saying that more of it should be put towards bettering our public schools.
The idea of federal funding is very interesting. A lot of federal money does in fact go to fixing the problems that poor education has caused like prisons. Redistributing that money could be very beneficial. It is important, however, to recognize that many citizens fear a very centralized government. This fear may grow if the federal government is given more control of education, which currently is in the states’ hands.
I’m not sure that more federal control is the answer. I feel like it is the government’s responsibility to develop standards based on data, and then leave it up to schools, districts, and communities to meet those standards. It might be better to keep funding at a semi-local level, maybe a state tax pool, because each state has specific needs that they need to address. For example, the demographics of each state can vary considerably. In Arizona there is a large influx of Hispanic immigrants, which drives the need for bilingual programs. As a result, schools that offer those programs will need more funding in that area than schools that don’t. More federal control, to me, sounds like more bureaucracy, more fighting in the House and Senate, with no real changes getting done, and with money being wasted.
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