Inequalities In Public Education Funding part 2 Essay - 3,050 words

... being more efficient. So why then there is still tendency towards closing small schools and building new and big ones? It is the responsibility of legislators to change this policy. However, the legislation can be the last option. Of the 22 cases in which small schools had sued states funding formulas, half have been decided for the plaintiffs and half for the defendants. In 11 cases that plaintiffs had won, only four resulted into actual increases in funding.


All institutions that take care of proper budgeting are looking for new opportunities to save funds. Besides, in some cases it might be possible for community members to do volunteer work at schools. For instance, it could be hall monitoring, test grading, library maintenance etc. In order to make volunteer work effective, schools need to acknowledge volunteers contributions in meaningful and personal ways. Encourage retiring teachers to volunteer to mentor new teachers. Retired teachers can offer wisdom, perspective, and time that practicing teachers may not have (Parsons C. Mentors strengthen community service. SerVermont, Chester, VT, 1999). The first strategy for gaining new resources could be seeking for an outside grants.


However, small schools capture these grants last. In order to secure grants and use them for short-term strategy, a lot of effort should be made, but it is unlikely that these grants will have a big impact in improving the situation. These grants can provide quick infusions of fund and will accelerate action. Unfortunately, they can distract schools from their prime assignment to provide education and will not result into long-term significant improvements. Federal and state governments provide funds for specific purposes through formula grants and discretionary grants. Formula grants are awarded on a per-student basis, which makes them to penalize schools in the same way that formula funding does. It is important to have a support in small public schools funding from congressional staffers, who should be familiar with the particular school and with its problems. It is the public responsibility to provide all the information to these people.


State discretionary grants are often made in response to proposals, however small school get their share of these funds too rarely. Small schools do not have adequate skills to produce focused proposals. In some states, there is an assigned advocate for schools within the state department of education. This person is responsible for supporting and improving the proposal application process. The issue of unequal public school funding has been brought to courts. Recently, New York Supreme Court Judge Leland DeGrasse declared that New York States school funding system was not constitutional. The Judge handed a victory to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which had sued the state for inequalities in public school funding. To date 19 states have had their school funding programs deemed unconstitutional and been ordered by courts to correct inequalities.


It was ordered by New York judge to state Legislature to come up with solutions by September 15, 1999. The state was appealing the ruling. The Assembly in Albany has called on Governor George Pataki to withdraw his appeal, but oral arguments begin in October. CFE v. State of New York has been an emotional case, filed in 1999 on behalf of the New York City schools, where there is more than enough testimony of crowded classes in neglected buildings, where the high drop-out rates and low test scores are mainly the result of under-funding by the state, the judge found. According to the Assembly's resolution, the Governor's appeal, "further delays ensuring equal educational opportunities to the students of New York and continues to hinder the State's most vulnerable children from achieving." A quarter of the state's schoolchildren live in poverty. The Republican-controlled State Senate in New York has long championed aid formulas that favor the G.O.P.


base in the suburbs and upstate. Justice Leland DeGrasse is unequivocal: New York's school aid formulas are unfair. They have deprived poor urban (and rural) districts of their fair share of the state's nearly $30 billion annual spending, while protecting affluent suburban schools from any decrease in state money. That violates state constitutional guarantees that every child is entitled to a "sound, basic education." A sound school district has adequate buildings, books, and resources, qualified teaching staff, and graduates who can be productive citizens. The school aid formulas additionally violate federal civil rights laws because they affect minority students disproportionately. In order to prevent further discrimination of students this situation should be changed immediately. Statistic shows that 44 percent of all New York States public school students are minority ones.


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Essay Tags: new york, public school, school funding, public education, funding

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