Public schools are facing problems and need more money to make
them adequate, as well as having the students achieve. There are many schools throughout the
country that are getting very old and run down, but are still being used. Stover (1999) paints a picture of what some
public schools look like.
On rainy days, garbage cans are put in
one school’s hallways to catch water leaking through the roof. At another school, the electrical system is
so antiquated that only a limited number of computers can be installed. Yet another school is condemned as
structurally unsafe.
More
than 60 percent of public elementary and secondary schools need major repair
because of decaying infrastructure (Clement, 1997). Congressman Clement explains the danger of these old buildings.
While decaying school buildings detract from the students’ ability to learn, they also pose serious health risks. Two out of every three public elementary and secondary schools have ‘troublesome environmental conditions’ such as asbestos, radon, or lead in the water. If the education system is to improve, then students must learn in a healthy environment, where they can devote full attention to their studies and not be distracted by pollutants. (p. 68)
Not only is there a problem with the actual school
buildings being old and in need of repair, but the number of students who are
enrolled in public school is increasing.
There is a record 53 million children enrolled this year in American
schools. Public schools have grown by
6.6 million students in the last 10 years, resulting in overcrowded classrooms
and strained schools facilities (Clinton, 2000).
Life in America has dramatically changed because of
technology. Because of this change, the
skills and knowledge that children need to learn to become successful adults
has changed. This technological shift
in our society has made technology, specifically in the form of computers and
the Internet, a major focus in school reform (National Center for Education
Statistics, 2000). A study conducted by
the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) done with public school
teachers found that one of the major barriers to using computers and the
Internet for instruction in the classrooms was not having enough computers. Also, teachers in schools that had more than
50 percent minority enrollments were more likely to report outdated,
incompatible, or unreliable computers as a great barrier for them (NCES,
2000). These are just some of the
reasons that public elementary and secondary schools need financial
support.
Some people may feel that we do not
need to spend as much money on our schools as we do, but the environment that
children are in to learn does affect their achievement. Karen Anderson (1997) in The Education Digest
said that after reviewing several hundred studies researchers found a
consistent and positive relationship between spending and student achievement:
spending does increase student achievement.
The current school funding system is
not successful and many states are even finding that their funding system is
unconstitutional. New Hampshire is one
of these states. The New Hampshire
Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the state’s system for funding education
relied too heavily on local property tax.
The poorer school districts of New Hampshire did not get enough money
through their local tax base to adequately fund their schools even where the
local tax rate was as much as 50 to 80 percent higher than the wealthier
communities (School Board News, 1999).
For these reasons, it is time to reform school
funding. Three things that I feel would
help public elementary and secondary school funding are having community
involvement, school choice, and site-based management.
With the population in America
getting older, fewer people have a direct interest in public education (Ward,
1995). This means that there are more
people who do not understand what it takes to produce a high-quality
educational program. Because of this,
it may be more difficult to get public support for schools. We need to educate the community and build a
partnership with them so that they understand what is needed. We need to ask them for their help and use
their resources. Being able to use
resources from the community can also help schools save money. The more involved the community is, the more
they will see the importance of their support.
In return they deserve to see the results of their efforts. If the community can see that they are
making a difference, they are going to be willing to continue giving support to
the public schools.
One example of using community
resources can be found at Bow High School.
Bow’s ninth grade humanities class have a Career Exploration Day where
they get to learn first hand about the career of their choice by going to one
of the businesses in the community to see what it would be like to work there
(Concord Monitor, 2000). This is just one example of how community involvement
can be utilized.
I think many parents are not as involved as they
should be in their child’s education, and do not really know what goes on at
their child’s school. They may feel
they do not really need to examine the school because many of the decisions are
already made for them. It has already
been decided where their child is going to go to school, who their child’s
teacher is going to be, and what their child is going to learn. School choice is allowing parents to decide
where their child will attend school. I
feel that having school choice will accomplish two things. First of all, if parents have the
opportunity to choose what school their child attends, they will be more apt to
learn about the schools in the area and find out what they are like. This will cause parents to be more involved
and more informed about the schools.
Older children will also get to help parents choose where they attend
school. This will encourage the student
to work harder and do better because this is where they want to be, not where
they have to be.
The second thing that school choice accomplishes is
competition between the schools. This
is one of the best ways to improve anything.
If a store does not give good business, have a nice environment, and
good prices, it does not stay in business.
Competition in schools will improve the overall quality of education
that public schools provide by forcing schools to work harder to be the
best. The current system tries to put
all children in the same category by using the same curriculum. With school choice, schools can decide to
specialize in and use the talents of the teachers to personalize their school
and parents can choose what school best fits their child’s needs.
One example of school choice is found in District
Four of East Harlem, New York, where a group of alternative public schools that
are operated without the restrictions of the public school system.
Teachers became rejuvenated when the school system
removed the bureaucratic rules and
regulations, thus allowing them to freely develop curricula. Eventually, that system permitted parents to
send their children to any school in the district. The improvement in student performance was staggering. From 1974, when the school system
established the inter-district school choice and alternative program, to the
present, District Four improved its rank among the thirty-two districts in the
New York public school system from thirty-two to twenty-two. Additionally, the percentage of students
reading at or above their grade level more than doubled and more students were
admitted to selective high schools. (Marshall, 1995, p. 91)
Competition
and consumer choice has also made America’s university system a “first class”
system that even exports a substantial number of degrees to foreign students
(Marshall, 1995).
Most states right now are funding their schools
through the school districts. This has
been causing a lot of problems. Each
school board gets to decide how much money they are going to allocate to each
school in their district. Then they get
to set the taxes for that area to raise the money to fund the schools. This leads to some districts having a large
per-pupil expenditure with a smaller tax burden, while other districts have a
very small per-pupil expenditure with a large tax burden. This is why states’ current system have been
found unconstitutional as discussed earlier.
Another problem with having the school board in charge of funding the
schools is that they get to make the financial decisions of schools that they
do not operate. They are not in each of
these schools every day to know what is needed to manage them or make them
better. Having site-based management would increase school autonomy and let
those who are working in the school everyday—who know what the schools needs
are—make the decisions.
“Spurred by a growing body of research from the
private sector on the benefits of participatory decision-making, school leaders
believe that site-based management is a promising strategy for improving the
quality of educational decision-making because it engages those closest to the
action” (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1993). Under a
site-based management program, there would be the formation of a school-based
committee or council that would consist of teachers as well as parents,
students, and community members.
Through legislative or board action, this committee is empowered to make
decisions that usually fall within three areas: budget, personnel and staffing,
and curriculum/programs (NCREL, 1993).
Having a program like this would help schools become more cost effective
because the teachers and principals are the ones who know best where the money
should to be spent. Having parents and community members on the committee will
also help teachers and principals be guided from a different point of view. It can also help the community and parents
understand how much money it takes to run the school and, where the money is
being spent. The more the community and
parents understand about the schools and feel they are a part of it, and that
they can make a difference, the more they are willing to help and not feel
burdened by taxes which in the end make better schools.
Having site-based management also allows the schools
to make their classrooms more individualized to their students. As the schools are able to have more freedom
to spend the money the way they feel is best, they can make the schools more
personal to their group of students.
Why is it so important to have our children achieve
in school? Our whole society’s future
is going to rely on the children of today.
The children who are being educated today are our future leaders. If America is to continue to be strong, and
to have a good economy, then people need to be concerned with the welfare of
the children and the kind of education they receive. This is how Clement (1997) explained this.
Education is our country’s top domestic priority. I
firmly believe that education is the key to solving most of the problems that
confront our nation. Properly educated
children receive the tools needed to become good citizens who make a positive
contribution to our economy and to our society. Every child deserves a legitimate opportunity to learn, and thus,
a genuine opportunity to succeed in life. (p. 54-55)
I
believe this to be true and the only way that this is going to happen is for
all of us to work together. We need to
reach out and educate our society about the importance of education for the
children. We need to get everyone
involved in teaching our children. We
need to give more power to the parents so that they are involved in their
child’s education. We need create
competition between schools so that they will work harder to become the
best. We need to empower those who
operate our schools and know what the needs of the school are.
References
Anderson, K. (1997, January). Public
school spending: the truth. The Education Digest.
Clement, B. (1997). Education: where
the stakes are as high as children can dream. Saint Louis University Public
Law Review, 17, 55-69.
Clinton, W. (2000, August 28).
Statement on school overcrowding. Weekly Compilation of Presidential
Documents. Retrieved November 19, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://proquest.umi.com
(2000, June 19). Mentors take a bow. Concord Monitor.
Retrieved November 21, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.concordmonitor.com
Marshall, J. (1995). School choice:
American elementary and secondary education enter the “adapt or die”
environment of a competitive marketplace. John Marshall Law Review, 29,
90-91.
National Center for Education
Statistics. (2000, September). Teacher’s tools for the 21st
Century. pp.8-19
North Central Regional Educational
Laboratory. (1993). Decentralization:
why, how, and toward what ends? NCREL’s policy briefs. Retrieved October
18, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-1site.htm
(1999, May 11). New taxes avert
funding crisis in New Hampshire. School Board News. Retrieved October 7,
2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nsba.org/sbn/1999/051199-6.htm
Stover, D. (1999, August 17). Many
rural schools also are in dire need of repair. School Board News.
Retrieved October 7, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nsba.org/sbn/1999/081799-1.htm
