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One of the most significant issues raised in public education in recent years is the radical difference that exists in funding levels between wealth and poor school districts. "Many states have allotted educational funding related to tax revenues, and this has determined a higher level of educational spending in wealthy neighborhoods and a much lower level of spending for inner-city poor and rural poor communities" (Friday 15). A number of states have considered and implemented plans for the equalization of school funding, but this has not come without considerable opposition. Though individuals in low-income neighborhoods areas have defined this equalization as a positive process for improving urban schools, wealthier suburban populations have complained that this will take away funding necessary to maintain programs that are already in place. "The basic formula for educational spending today is determined by a program called the 'foundation program (Kozol 238) '. The way that the program works is a local tax based on the value of homes and businesses within a given district raises the initial funds for schools. Then to compensate poorer districts, the state provides sufficient funds to lift the poorer districts to an estimated equal level of the richer districts. "The state, however, does not provide funds equal to the level of the richer district, but instead gives only enough money to provide a minimum or basic education to the students in the poorer districts. This guarantees that every child receives an education, but it is not an 'equal' education" (Kozol, 238).
State officials determine the sufficient funds, but due to the dynamics of politics they are shaped by what the richer districts determine to be enough. So, in turn, what they are doing is placing the education of the inner-city students in the hands of the supporters of the suburban schools. If the officials are to allocate more money to the poorer districts, then they will be the ones that are affected by additional tax levies on their higher incomes and property values. "What is at stake is the future of a heterogeneous America, a place where there is equal opportunity for everyone, not just for those who can afford to pay for a good education and the chance to have a more prosperous life" (Kozol 237). It seems as if "Those who do not want their children to be handicapped by the learning problems of others who have suffered generations of oppression, ignorance, and neglect simply abandon the city schools that these students were being integrated into and fled to richer suburban schools" (Kozol 238). Today, Blacks, Hispanics, and poorer children dominate 23 of the nations 25 largest urban school systems. This has raised a permanent fissure in our public schools and has separated them into two separate and unequal class systems - one suburban, privileged and mostly white; and the other inner-city, poorer and mostly non-white.
One of the most important and central individuals when dealing with saving the merit of are urban schools are the teachers. They are on the front line, having daily contact with the students, and are basically the ones that struggle to revive our schools. But the continual worsening of conditions in urban schools for teachers - low pay, overcrowded classes, increased responsibilities, outdated and meager resources - are disintegrating the number and quality of teachers in them. "The best teachers then move on to school systems who can offer them better working conditions and more pay - the schools in suburban districts." (Farber 90). Salary and environmental conditions become major issues when considering the quality and worthiness of teachers in urban compared to suburban schools. The teachers that teach and remain in poor urban schools face the daily challenge of trying to provide an equivalent education as to that which is being provided to the students in a wealthier suburban school.
Urban schools and teachers face many problems in educating their students. The buildings are often run down and dilapidated and in desperate need of repair. "The foundation problems range from broken windows, leaky roofs, to sewage problems. On a smaller scale, but not necessarily less important, are the lack of classroom materials available: no paper or chalk, blackboards that are broken and unable to be used, textbooks that are outdated" (Farber 91). Teachers in these schools are expected to rise above these challenges to reach and educate their students. The students are expected to learn skills to survive in today's society out of textbooks that are 15 years old. They are expected to keep their minds on acquiring skills to help them lead a more prosperous life, while outside of their classes a war is going on in the streets.
The lack of equal quality education is producing a generational cycle of poverty in the country that is casting a gloomy burden on our schools and society for the future. Many individuals stay in poverty because they don't know there is a choice and have no one to teach them how to overcome it and become successful. Schools are the only place where students can learn the choices of other social classes. The chances of them overcoming the heavy obstacles that await them without the skills the need are very slim.
Their chances of being economically successful in today's competitive society is small. Those who have had a more extensive and advantageous educational experience will continually overshadow them. "The children of poverty and those who are products of inner city schools will most likely remain prisoners of an extensive legacy of economic and social exile" (Gross 185). The neglect for the educational needs of the children in urban schools threatens the economic well being of the nation. Unless the inequalities in education between suburban and urban schools are diminished, the schools and their students will always be victims of the divisions of race and class.
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