School Finance, Essay Example

The complex processes of running schools and humanizing them cannot take place without the appropriate resources being involved. It is no surprise that nowadays’ biggest resource is considered to be money. Thus school financing and budgeting is one of the most crucial aspects of schools’ operating. Whether we want it or not, modern educational system is doomed to be rather ineffective and poor if not supported by sufficient funds.

The author of the article “School Finance” discusses the problems connected with school budgeting that we face today. He raises the subject of money allocation among schools all over the country. The author explains the system by which the process of funds’ distribution is performed. School budgets and the methods the educational establishments are financed differ from state to state and school district to school district. Certain combination of providing budget for elementary and secondary schools is normally used: 49% goes from income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and fees; 43% are supplied by local districts; approximately 8% of state education budgets are contributed by federal government. These collected funds are than given out to the school districts on a per-pupil basis, which is to guarantee each student is provided with proper amount of resources, and categorically, which is to guarantee sufficient money is supplied for each particular program or facility (EPE Research Center, 2007). And that is how it generally works.

The one issue that the author brings up and which I believe to be forever critical is adhering to the principles of the adequacy and equity of resource allcoation in school financing. The principle of adequacy means that each state endows the students with money enough to meet academic anticipations. The concept of equity in school funding is based on strategic operations aimed at healing the breach between local districts’ facilities to collect revenues for their schools. In short, these are the parameters that are supposed to prevent unequal or inadequate allocation of funds among school districts. The question of why one school gets more funding than another is a critical one indeed.

Equality has always been glorified by the American public education since the regular school was established in the 19th century. The years have passed since then and now most American citizens are considering chiefly what level of education is adequate and who is accountable for providing the resources needed to deliver it. “More recently, the basis of school finance litigation has begun to shift from equity and fairness to securing the resources necessary to provide an adequate education to all students” (Lefkowits, 2004). So what do we truly have to adhere to: the principle of equity or the one of adequacy? What would be more just?

The process of defining the criteria of an appropriate school funding is a complex and a long one. The lawsuits of the 1980s taken place in California that are mentioned in the article help to trace through the general development of the tendencies in relations between educational system and state budgeting. At first, most cases were presented as those questioning the equity of state finance systems in relation to disadvantaged children. Lately, however, most finance litigants moved their focus to dealing with the general adequacy of finance systems. Obviously, it eventually has had a great impact on how the schools operate today, since the focus is still being made on adequacy.

Nevertheless, “now is the time for the policy community to focus on what resources will be required to leave no child behind. In many cases, more money is surely needed” (Lefkowits, 2004). Still, I believe money to be only a one aspect of the educational system. There are much more disputable questions to decide on today. And probably we all have to listen to the opinion that no matter how much money is supplied to the educational system, it will not make any difference until schools change the basics of how they operate.

References

EPE Research Center. (2007, December 6). School Finance. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from http://www.edweek.org/rc/issues/school-finance/

Lefkowits, L. (2004, March). School Finance: From Equity to Adequacy. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/PolicyBriefs/5042PI_PBSchoolFinanceBrief.pdf