The Importance Of Urban Education

Economic disparity has come to the fore of American politics in a way that we haven’t seen since the creation of the New Deal legislation. Typically, this discussion tends to fall only along lines of economic distribution and wealth. Unfortunately, education has so far failed to rise to the top step of this discussion, but the two are intrinsically linked. Across the nation, and particularly in urban areas, public schools are failing to properly educate children. The biggest gaps in education continue to divide students by race and social class, with African American and Hispanic students faring dramatically worse than their Caucasian peers. A crumbling education infrastructure in New York is impossible to sustain and punishes us every day …show more content…
Among the most obvious is that urban school districts operate in densely packed cities and serve a much larger population. Urban areas frequently have larger concentrations of poverty and children with parents on social assistance programs. Additionally, urban areas frequently have higher minority and foreign populations, which may result in issues with students who struggle with English as a second language. Unfortunately, there is no one cause to blame, but a host of issues that need to be addressed. First and foremost, the manner in which a state funds its education system needs to be completely …show more content…
The City of Albany draws a massive amount of people from neighboring towns and cities for employment; so much so that during working hours Albany’s population of 97,951 rise to 163,528. At the end of the day, however, those 65,577 people who work in Albany take their income back to other towns, cities and counties and away from Albany. The end result is that a massive amount of school tax revenue is lost because theses taxes are paid elsewhere. Under a system similar to LCCF the City of Albany would base its funding on its school population and would be provided with a guaranteed base amount every year that did not change with tax assessments.
Another benefit of LCCF is that it allows for a more ground level approach. A school district will be able to tackle its own issues head on, with the ability to allocate funds as they see fit. LCCF is far more student-centric than former methods of funding schooling. This allows a school district to address problems that are specific to their individual schools, as opposed to tackling the issue on a state-wide basis. If one particular school suffers from an issue endemic to that individual school, changes can be made to address