Public School Funding
“The idea of making free education a right was controversial—the ‘most explosive political issue in the 19th century, except for abolition,’” (Semuels 9). Today, public schools offer free education for grades K-12 however, the controversy has now shifted towards funding these schools. Politicians, teachers and parents across the country have argued for a systematic change to the system that allows “students in higher-income towns such as Greenwich and Darien [to] have easy access to guidance counselors, school psychologists, personal laptops, and up-to-date textbooks, [while] those in high-poverty areas like Bridgeport and New Britain don’t,” (Semuels 1). The ability to provide additional resources is a result of inequality in public school funding In most states, school districts collect their revenue from local property taxes, meaning wealthier communities produce wealthier public schools. Many legal cases have been filed demanding the state and the federal government to step in, however, both governments have a tendency to hover over the issue. Publishers, including The Huffington Post and The Atlantic, have published articles relating to this problem. Kate Wheelock, in her article The Future of Challenges to the Alaska Public School Funding Scheme After State v. Ketchikan, speaks in particular of the public school funding system in Alaska and its intentions to deviate its reliance on local property taxes …show more content…
The articles as a whole educate readers about the current public school funding systems, dating back to the very first American public school, to stress its drawbacks in educational inequality across
“The idea of making free education a right was controversial—the ‘most explosive political issue in the 19th century, except for abolition,’” (Semuels 9). Today, public schools offer free education for grades K-12 however, the controversy has now shifted towards funding these schools. Politicians, teachers and parents across the country have argued for a systematic change to the system that allows “students in higher-income towns such as Greenwich and Darien [to] have easy access to guidance counselors, school psychologists, personal laptops, and up-to-date textbooks, [while] those in high-poverty areas like Bridgeport and New Britain don’t,” (Semuels 1). The ability to provide additional resources is a result of inequality in public school funding In most states, school districts collect their revenue from local property taxes, meaning wealthier communities produce wealthier public schools. Many legal cases have been filed demanding the state and the federal government to step in, however, both governments have a tendency to hover over the issue. Publishers, including The Huffington Post and The Atlantic, have published articles relating to this problem. Kate Wheelock, in her article The Future of Challenges to the Alaska Public School Funding Scheme After State v. Ketchikan, speaks in particular of the public school funding system in Alaska and its intentions to deviate its reliance on local property taxes …show more content…
The articles as a whole educate readers about the current public school funding systems, dating back to the very first American public school, to stress its drawbacks in educational inequality across