Policy Paper Format
Public schools provide and oversee the basic educational foundation for a great number of citizens. Though public education was merely a privilege in the United States until the 20th century, it now plays a major role in society as it shapes the social, economic, and political health of the United States. Although the federal government has meddled intensely in the matter, footing the bill for public education still falls on the shoulders of each state’s taxpayers, regardless of family status. In California, the price of education has slowly become burdensome and, as a result, the cost of a proper education is too high; those with more prosperous socioeconomic backgrounds benefit from better education. Public education …show more content…
The second half of the 19th century saw the start of public education for children in California, while legislatives and advocates in the 20th century made schooling available to high school-aged children. Since then, funding has been in question. Who pays and how do they pay? Taxpayers were the answer. More than a century later, we continue to question the basis and responsibility. Within a decade, from 2004 to 2014, college students have come to face tuition that was twice as high as before (Jackson, 2014). “If you went to a public university or college in 2000, there was a very good chance that your state government paid more for your college education than you did.” Now that every state in the union requires that children receive at least a grade school education (Smith & Greenblatt, 2018), and the demand for a college education is constantly climbing, funding has become increasingly important, but states no longer desire to foot the bill. However, the problem doesn’t just lie in the funding but we must also determine who gets a proper education and how do they get it? Socioeconomic circumstances should not define who gets a proper grade school education and pursues a higher …show more content…
“Historically speaking, public education has been considered a Tenth Amendment prerogative of states and localities, not the purview of the federal government” (Smith & Greenblatt, 2018). This lack of distinction and increased meddling by the federal government could be contributing to the disownership of education costs by Californians. Take the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative, for example. Enacted in 2002 by Congress and the Bush Administration, the NCLB was a federal policy whose primary goals were “to improve academic achievement, to eliminate gaps in educational achievement and opportunity between white and minority students, and to hold schools more accountable for student achievement” (Smith & Greenblatt, 2018). In order to receive funding, states and school districts were pressured to perform exceptionally and demonstrate as such in the federal government’s progression tracking. However, the stress on standardized testing in order to prove improvement was too
Public schools provide and oversee the basic educational foundation for a great number of citizens. Though public education was merely a privilege in the United States until the 20th century, it now plays a major role in society as it shapes the social, economic, and political health of the United States. Although the federal government has meddled intensely in the matter, footing the bill for public education still falls on the shoulders of each state’s taxpayers, regardless of family status. In California, the price of education has slowly become burdensome and, as a result, the cost of a proper education is too high; those with more prosperous socioeconomic backgrounds benefit from better education. Public education …show more content…
The second half of the 19th century saw the start of public education for children in California, while legislatives and advocates in the 20th century made schooling available to high school-aged children. Since then, funding has been in question. Who pays and how do they pay? Taxpayers were the answer. More than a century later, we continue to question the basis and responsibility. Within a decade, from 2004 to 2014, college students have come to face tuition that was twice as high as before (Jackson, 2014). “If you went to a public university or college in 2000, there was a very good chance that your state government paid more for your college education than you did.” Now that every state in the union requires that children receive at least a grade school education (Smith & Greenblatt, 2018), and the demand for a college education is constantly climbing, funding has become increasingly important, but states no longer desire to foot the bill. However, the problem doesn’t just lie in the funding but we must also determine who gets a proper education and how do they get it? Socioeconomic circumstances should not define who gets a proper grade school education and pursues a higher …show more content…
“Historically speaking, public education has been considered a Tenth Amendment prerogative of states and localities, not the purview of the federal government” (Smith & Greenblatt, 2018). This lack of distinction and increased meddling by the federal government could be contributing to the disownership of education costs by Californians. Take the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative, for example. Enacted in 2002 by Congress and the Bush Administration, the NCLB was a federal policy whose primary goals were “to improve academic achievement, to eliminate gaps in educational achievement and opportunity between white and minority students, and to hold schools more accountable for student achievement” (Smith & Greenblatt, 2018). In order to receive funding, states and school districts were pressured to perform exceptionally and demonstrate as such in the federal government’s progression tracking. However, the stress on standardized testing in order to prove improvement was too