Underfunded Public Schools

Over the last couple of years, headlines about schools have become more and more prevalent. Whether it was about school lunches (and how bad they are) or how schools are helping their students for the better, stories about schools have been and will always be in the headlines. However, there is one story that has shown up plenty of times and has no definite solution: underfunded public schools. Public schools all over the nation, from Chicago to Philadelphia, have been declining for a while. Many believe the decline is from a lack of discipline. Others believe that parents aren’t helping out enough. The main reason these schools (and the children) are declining are because schools are “underfunded”. Many do question the lack of funds and want …show more content…
States are funding public schools less and less these days. State budgeting has been as issue for quite some time, “cuts at the state level force local school districts to scale back educational services” (CPBB). Roughly 46% of public schools rely on state funds in some way. Now there are a multitude of reasons why states have budgeting problems that cause havoc on public schools. The recession of 2008 was a major factor in the decline of public schools. The recession caused the states to cut back funding on many things, public schools were a major portion of that. Teaching jobs were cut back, schools were struggling to find ways to provide a sufficient education. Along with the recession, reforms have been made to better the schools. However, schools haven’t been able to comply with such reforms because they still lack funds from the recession. Since the U.S is still recovering from the recession, schools continue to suffer from after …show more content…
State funds and local funds help public schools. Local funds often come in the form of property taxes. A property tax is a mulct on the worth of a property. This is where most public schools begin to decline. The thing about property taxes is that it may seem like a good way so support public schools, however it is only beneficial to some. Property taxes for public schools are usually created by the public, “it’s this system that causes the most dramatic differences between states, and even within districts” (PBS). There’s a reason why some schools would fall behind because of property taxes— poorer school districts don’t receive that much money from it. It’s simple really. Those with higher incomes often pay heavier property taxes, while low income earners can’t put forth the same amount of money. Therefore, rich districts are able to support their students because of greater property tax income while poor districts struggle to fund their schools the same way rich districts