Equality in School Finance Essay -- essays research papers fc

Equality in School FinanceIn The Story of the Education Dollar, Odden, Monk, Nakib and Picus describe some canonical facts well-nigh education spending in the United States to facilitate an understanding of the level and uses of the federal governments policies on education funding. The purpose of the authors discussion is to argue that semipublic education facilities need to change their focus on the consumption of educational resources to a focus on producing high levels of student achievement. They contend that such a redirection in focus will require large improvements in student achievement, given that only about 10 percent of students currently attain the craved level of achievement across the board in mathematics, science, writing, history, geography and civics. James Traub expands on their discussion to argue for the necessary cellular inclusion of after-care activities for inner-city youth in either successful educational spending program.Odden et al. note that their ana lysis of spending patterns across the 50 states is supported by the conclusions reached by the Finance Center of the Consortium for policy Research in Education (CPRE), although the results of their research did diverge in some significant ways. Odden et al. examined spending and staffing patterns at the district and school levels. They also scrutinized staffing patterns of expenditures by constituent and program and spending across curriculum content areas in California, Florida and New York. Their major conclusion was that while there had been considerable national investment in public education during the 20th century, as a rule the funds were distributed unfairly and used ineffectively. The largest portion of increased spending during the 20th century occurred to mesh more teachers to reduce class size and to provide more out-of-classroom services, particularly for special education purposes. However, they argue that neither strategy boosted student achievement very much. Al so, although education spending has increased teachers salaries, it has not been used to improve the quality of the teachers. Notably, Odden et al. found that both low-spending and high-spending school districts fund education spending in the identical proportions, meaning that high-spending districts tend to have lower class sizes and higher teacher salaries. The authors argue this discrepancy reflects the "fiscal regulariti... ...otes that while we must, as Odden et al. advocate, approach each domesticise program as though it could provide unlimited success, we must also take into account the demonstrated limitation of such programs. Significantly, blacks still score about 200 points lower than whites on College Boards and an average 17-year-old black student reads at a 13-year-old level.Thus, Traub argues, schools are not the final arbiter of student achievement. He contends that a childs home life and social culture, which can fail to nurture mental and intellectual stimu lation, should be taken into consideration when drafting reform programs. He suggests the inclusion of programs such as Impact, a multi-purpose, social service program that offers year-round day care, adult literacy programs, and health care programs. At the least, the calls for the need for after-school activities that provides an alternate(a) environment for inner-city youth.BibliographyOdden, Allan, Monk, David, Nakib, Yasser and Picus, Lawrence. "The Story of the Education Dollar." Phi Delta Kappan (October, 1995) 161-168.Traub, James. "What No School Can Do." New York Times Magazine (January 16, 2000) 52-91.