American Public Schools
In the United States, the role of education is primarily a State and local responsibility. This is reflected in education funding, where the responsibility lies mostly on state and local sources. There are around 14,000 public schools in the United States, and most funding comes from state sales and income tax. Locally, property taxes provide a large amount of funding for public school, and this is where we see the greatest inequality in funding. Areas with higher property values will tend to have more funding per students, while areas with low property values will have less per student. This is where racial and economic divisions become especially prevalent in the public school systems. Policy decisions concerning taxes are watched closely by school districts, as they can directly change the funding towards schools. (PBS article: How do we fund our schools?, ed.gov)
The American public school system operates through a number of school districts, each governed by a school board. A school board is a legally entity. School boards have powers similar to a town or municipality like taxation and eminent domain. Like a municipality, a school district has boundaries, and those properties within the boundaries have traditionally been required to send their children to the schools within these boundaries.
Interestingly enough, “Total education funding has increased substantially in recent years at all levels of government, even when accounting for enrollment increases and inflation” (ed.gov). This also reflects recent legislation that has put funding emphasis on accountability for results rather than funding based solely on districts and students within them. “No Child Left Behind” is an example of this, it had the goal of boosting school performance for certain groups of students such as poor and minority students, students in special ed and second language learners. Legislation like this includes punishment for not reaching goals which range from allowing the students to change schools to complete shutdown of the school (edweek.org).
According to the U.S DOE website, about 92% of all funds for elementary and secondary school levels comes from non-federal sources. Of the remaining 8%, funds come from not only the DoEducation, but also from the Department of Health, Agriculture and Human Services. The total contribution of the DoEducation is very small. (ed.gov)
The American public school system operates through a number of school districts, each governed by a school board. A school board is a legally entity. School boards have powers similar to a town or municipality like taxation and eminent domain. Like a municipality, a school district has boundaries, and those properties within the boundaries have traditionally been required to send their children to the schools within these boundaries.
Interestingly enough, “Total education funding has increased substantially in recent years at all levels of government, even when accounting for enrollment increases and inflation” (ed.gov). This also reflects recent legislation that has put funding emphasis on accountability for results rather than funding based solely on districts and students within them. “No Child Left Behind” is an example of this, it had the goal of boosting school performance for certain groups of students such as poor and minority students, students in special ed and second language learners. Legislation like this includes punishment for not reaching goals which range from allowing the students to change schools to complete shutdown of the school (edweek.org).
According to the U.S DOE website, about 92% of all funds for elementary and secondary school levels comes from non-federal sources. Of the remaining 8%, funds come from not only the DoEducation, but also from the Department of Health, Agriculture and Human Services. The total contribution of the DoEducation is very small. (ed.gov)
School Choice Movement: Charter Schools, Vouchers, & Betsy DeVos
“School Choice” refers to alternatives to the American public school systems. Because persistent and continuing inequality in the public school system, many families have begun to look for alternatives that do not make their child go to specific schools within their public school district.
The newly appointed head of the Department of Education strongly supports both charter schools and voucher programs. This is a major concern for supporters of the public school system, as they believe that under this administration, federal support for public schools will continue to decline. Supporters of public schools believe that even after the pros of vouchers and charter schools are brought up, there is still immense inequality to quality public education.
The newly appointed head of the Department of Education strongly supports both charter schools and voucher programs. This is a major concern for supporters of the public school system, as they believe that under this administration, federal support for public schools will continue to decline. Supporters of public schools believe that even after the pros of vouchers and charter schools are brought up, there is still immense inequality to quality public education.
Vouchers Charter Schools
A school voucher is a portion of money that the state gives to a family for a student to attend the school of their choice, including private school and religious based schools. Money for vouchers is gathered similarly to the public school system through income and sales tax, the difference is, the money is given to a family directly for tuition. The supporting argument here is that parents can get money to send their child to the school of their choice, referring specifically to private schools.
Arguments against vouchers are as follows: voucher programs may violate the standard of separation of church and state, since parents can use state money to send their child to a religious school. Another argument is that it takes money from public schools and gives it to students that can attend private schools that will never have enough room for all students. |
A charter school is a public school that operates under a “charter” that is an agreement between the school and its governing body. A charter school is still a public school and tuition free, but there are no district restrictions, anyone can apply to a charter school. Charters allow for autonomy in creating educational standards, in essence, the charter school does not have to follow the state standards. These schools can be run by companies, parents, community groups or nonprofits. The charter school will also have decision making over its staff and budget. Charter schools are usually not part of a state’s school districts. Charter schools can specialize in certain areas such as STEM. (Charterschoolcenter.org, greatschools.org)
Charter school enrollment has doubled in the past 10 years, and charter schools continue to grow in number (nces.ed.gov). According to supporters of charter schools, students perform better in math, reading and writing, and lower income students perform better in these same areas. Those who oppose the expansion of charter school say that given the nature of having a target market, charter schools are less diverse. They also say that having separate standards at each school instead of a statewide standard leads to inefficient and unequal education. |