The Disparities of School Funding

Over the past couple of years, there have been huge debates and arguments surrounding the issues of funding America’s public schools. With the passing of several laws such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, schools are required to set high expectations and goals to improve their students’ academic achievement in education regardless of their students’ socioeconomic status. This law also requires each state to develop standardized tests in the basic subject areas for every student on all grade levels especially states’ schools that receive Title I funding or federal funding (Lewis 2005). Although NCLB laws and regulations may seem ideal for all American public schools when it deals with schools’ budget and funds, there is a large socioeconomic gap among the students living in suburban and inner-city communities which has affected schools’ performance. The inequality in school funding can be largely related to the geographic location of the school and its surrounding environment.
In the early years of public education, school funding was solely based on school’s academic attendance where certain schools would receive adequate resources and supplies based on the number of students who attended school daily (Everhart 2006). For instance, many students that attended school in the late 19th and early 20th century were from affluent and upper middle class families where they had the privileged to attend high-quality schools compared to their low-income counterparts who were not enrolled in school (Everhart 2006). As the nation’s standards and expectations rose for its schools and student populations increased, the focus changed from funding public education based on school attendance to greater access for all students to receive an equal education regardless of ethnic and socioeconomic background. Public school education became supported by federal, state, and local taxes where local property taxes supplied 44% of all schools; states taxes supplied only 49% of public schools; and federal taxes only contributed to 7% of public schooling (Gollnick & Chin 2009). According to Robert Everhart, a Portland State University professor, “The demands for educating all children to high levels of proficiency require not only the reallocation of existing resources but also a substantial infusion of new funds….Yet, while the public consistently indicates a desire for high-quality education system, there is increased resistance to providing additional resources to pay for it…i.e. to raising taxes for schools” (2006).
Most public schools are funded by their local cities or counties taxes which can only contributed to a small vast amount of resources within the school system. State taxes also support public schooling, but it is broken down into different accounts and programs for resources. For example, the state budget accounts are broken down into instruction, materials, construction and maintenance, and transportation while the federal government taxes are responsible for specially funded programs to poverty-stricken children, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners (Hill 2008). Other funding for education is based on the individual schools and their surrounding environment which can help benefit and achieve academic success for its students through active involvement.
The decisions of how school funds are allocated are made by several legislatives and federal officials which decide how the money should be spent and the amount of money spent on certain academic areas (Hill 2008). School districts receive funds which are distributed to hire teachers, purchase classroom and school materials, testing, and professional development trainings. The schools also receive money from the districts in the forms of people, equipment, and special programs which help support the schools’ academic progress (Hill 2008). Many school leaders have to make decisions on how the money is distributed in their schools and whether certain academic programs need to be cut due to their budget expenses. This causes many inner city schools to have less academic enrichment programs such as Art and Music which may help student academic progress in other subject areas. The question that continues to pose public school education on funding is whether the inadequate amount of funds is hindering many schools from achieving their academic goals of success.
Robert Everhart states, “Schools are one of the few institutions with the potential to dampen the impact of inequality in markets by providing all children with the skills necessary to transcend factors such as poverty, lack of access to high quality health care, or living in an unsafe community.” I feel the inequality in schools has brought a disadvantaged to many low-income students because the schools they attend are not receiving the proper funding to help academic achievement. For instance, many students who attend low-income schools are from immigrant or poverty-stricken backgrounds who attend the schools in their local neighborhoods. Some of these neighborhood schools are located in low-income environments where there are low academic test scores, low graduation rates, small percentage of students attending college, contain new inexperience teachers, and rote learning might be the teaching style in these schools (Santrock 2007). These students are sometime at a disadvantage from succeeding and meeting academic expectations due to shortage of classroom and academic resources available to them.
Compared to high-income schools, low income schools are sometimes seen as a safety net for inner city children because they may come from poverty-stricken backgrounds where their parents don’t have high educational expectations for them or don’t have enough money to spend on education-related materials such as books, school supplies, and enrichment activities. Although these low income students are at a disadvantage from their high income counterparts in education, there should be some forms of incentives to help bridge the academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor.
One way that can help alleviate the disparities between school funding for low- income and high income schools are writing educational grants to non-for profit agencies that are willing to support educational causes such as updating school and classroom libraries through the purchase of books and media material. Some of these agencies might fund afterschool extracurricular activities for low-income students, early intervention programs for young children, donate classroom teaching supplies and resources, afterschool tutoring, or provide access to educational related trips for students and teachers.
Another way to help school funding may be through active parent and teacher involvement such as PTAs or PAs. Even though this may seem as a challenge for many disadvantaged schools, I feel there are some parents who are very involved and committed to helping advanced their child’s education. Most parents don’t realize it, but they are the voice and ears of schools and if they feel their child is not receiving adequate services or resources in their schools they can try and fight the system. Many parents are not familiar with their rights in the school system and I feel schools must be willing to educate them.
Teacher incentive programs may be another option in helping to educate and fund low-income schools. Some states and cities have implemented teacher incentive programs where teachers are given a small bonus to teach in low-income areas. New York City is one of the U.S. cities that allocate a small bonus to teachers of about $3,400 non-taxable for four years to teach in urban neighborhoods. These bonuses are incentives to help teachers push the academic expectations of these schools and raise the level of achievement. These incentives can also help with the schools to receive more funding through achievement bonuses on standardized tests.
Although it may take a couple of years to bridge the achievement gap of school funding, I believe some states and local cities are working diligently to help solve the education economic crisis in their schools. They are trying to implement programs and increase parent involvement so that students are able to reach high expectations as their affluent counterpart in education.







Works Cited
Everhart, R. (2006, September). Why Are Schools Always Begging for Money? Phi Delta Kappan, 70-75
Gollnick, D.M., Chinn, P.C. (2009). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. Upper Saddle Rive, NJ: Pearson
Hill, P. (2008). Spending Money When It Is Not Clear What Works. Peabody Journal of Education, 83, 238-258.
Lewis, A. (2005 February). Washington Scene. Education Digest, p.67-71
Santrock, J. (2007). Children. New York: Mc-Graw Hill