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Example research essay topic: Inequalities In Public Education Part 2 - 1,543 words

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... being more efficient. So why then there is still tendency towards closing small schools and building new and big ones? It is the responsibility of legislators to change this policy.

However, the legislation can be the last option. Of the 22 cases in which small schools had sued states funding formulas, half have been decided for the plaintiffs and half for the defendants. In 11 cases that plaintiffs had won, only four resulted into actual increases in funding. All institutions that take care of proper budgeting are looking for new opportunities to save funds.

Besides, in some cases it might be possible for community members to do volunteer work at schools. For instance, it could be hall monitoring, test grading, library maintenance etc. In order to make volunteer work effective, schools need to acknowledge volunteers contributions in meaningful and personal ways. Encourage retiring teachers to volunteer to mentor new teachers. Retired teachers can offer wisdom, perspective, and time that practicing teachers may not have (Parsons C. Mentors strengthen community service.

Ser Vermont, Chester, VT, 1999). The first strategy for gaining new resources could be seeking for an outside grants. However, small schools capture these grants last. In order to secure grants and use them for short-term strategy, a lot of effort should be made, but it is unlikely that these grants will have a big impact in improving the situation. These grants can provide quick infusions of fund and will accelerate action. Unfortunately, they can distract schools from their prime assignment to provide education and will not result into long-term significant improvements.

Federal and state governments provide funds for specific purposes through formula grants and discretionary grants. Formula grants are awarded on a per-student basis, which makes them to penalize schools in the same way that formula funding does. It is important to have a support in small public schools funding from congressional staffers, who should be familiar with the particular school and with its problems. It is the public responsibility to provide all the information to these people. State discretionary grants are often made in response to proposals, however small school get their share of these funds too rarely. Small schools do not have adequate skills to produce focused proposals.

In some states, there is an assigned advocate for schools within the state department of education. This person is responsible for supporting and improving the proposal application process. The issue of unequal public school funding has been brought to courts. Recently, New York Supreme Court Judge Leland De Grasse declared that New York States school funding system was not constitutional. The Judge handed a victory to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which had sued the state for inequalities in public school funding. To date 19 states have had their school funding programs deemed unconstitutional and been ordered by courts to correct inequalities.

It was ordered by New York judge to state Legislature to come up with solutions by September 15, 1999. The state was appealing the ruling. The Assembly in Albany has called on Governor George Pataki to withdraw his appeal, but oral arguments begin in October. CFE v. State of New York has been an emotional case, filed in 1999 on behalf of the New York City schools, where there is more than enough testimony of crowded classes in neglected buildings, where the high drop-out rates and low test scores are mainly the result of under-funding by the state, the judge found. According to the Assembly's resolution, the Governor's appeal, "further delays ensuring equal educational opportunities to the students of New York and continues to hinder the State's most vulnerable children from achieving. " A quarter of the state's schoolchildren live in poverty.

The Republican-controlled State Senate in New York has long championed aid formulas that favor the G. O. P. base in the suburbs and upstate. Justice Leland De Grasse is unequivocal: New York's school aid formulas are unfair. They have deprived poor urban (and rural) districts of their fair share of the state's nearly $ 30 billion annual spending, while protecting affluent suburban schools from any decrease in state money.

That violates state constitutional guarantees that every child is entitled to a "sound, basic education. " A sound school district has adequate buildings, books, and resources, qualified teaching staff, and graduates who can be productive citizens. The school aid formulas additionally violate federal civil rights laws because they affect minority students disproportionately. In order to prevent further discrimination of students this situation should be changed immediately. Statistic shows that 44 percent of all New York States public school students are minority ones.

There had been some programs developed for improving education opportunities for these students. For instance, The Algebra Project, which was founded in 1980 s by Bob Moses, is math literacy program designed to help poor African-American students. Bob Moses once had said that children without sufficient mathematical skills would be tracked into economic underclass. The main strengths of this project are teacher training, peer learning, and community engagement. The Algebra Project today serves to 10, 000 students in 28 different areas. This project gives real help and can be used as successful example to create new projects aimed at the improvement of education level.

There is also another project run by Bronx ACORN members. It is aimed at gaining resources for the South Bronx school zone, where the level of lowest-performing schools is quite big. This project organizes training for teachers and introduces reading programs in order to assist struggling students, who have a desire to study. It is actually interesting to find out on what depends voters support for the educational reform. The main issue that makes voters to be interested in changing school funding system is their knowledge of a problem. Increase in the voters knowledge about the problems of unequal funding of public education will automatically bring positive results, because voters support for the reform will eventually cause such a reform.

In order to reform a legislation, there should be evidence gathered that would prove that unequal education funding influence on school performance. Besides, there should be public support, which may show, how important is education for Americans. It is possible to collect all the required information and there are some good chances that this situation can be changed and that schools will be funded equally no matter where they are located. Today the difference between funding schools between neighboring school districts is drastic. For example, in the New York City public school system assigns approximately $ 5, 500 per student, while in suburban Rye, New York $ 12, 076 is spent per student.

However, it is not the problem of New York State alone. Similar situations were found in other states too, but in New York, it is easy to notice the difference the picture is too contrast. Very important topic is the effect of funding on school performance. Especially the level of funding determines the quality of education. After studying this situation, it is possible to see how unfair is our country.

I have a feeling that our government intentionally fun's public education in undemocratic way in order to protect children from wealthy families from competition from the poor. Jonathan Kozol had defined the reason for this: most public schools are funded by local property taxes, which he called "an archaic, and divisive, and undemocratic system that protects the selfish interests of the privileged, and guarantees that we will never have an honest meritocracy in our society, until the day the system is transformed. " (Kozol) Society should pay close attention to education. It is not a secret that education is the primary drive to success. The more educated people will be in our country the more successful will by our economics.

Taking care of education is the main responsibility of state and local governments. They should develop better educational programs and financially support schools. Obligatory school attendance laws and great expenditures on education show that education is very important in the society. If we claim that our society is a democratic one then there should be equal rights for all the students to acquire education.

Government is responsible for providing funds for education. I am sure that government notices the inequalities in school funding, but why then it does not make any steps to change this situation. This can be definitely considered as discrimination of rights. For children from poor families it can be possible to reach success mainly through education. Will not it be better if instead of developing delinquent behavior adolescence will acquire knowledge? Vivid example asking a person, what was the most important issue when supporting particular presidential candidate, may be used to describe the importance of education.

Eighty-tree percent of respondents said it is education. It is possible to come to conclusion that if the public were given more information about the inequities in public education funding, they would favorably respond to changes to the system to help reduce these inequalities. It will become possible to have more equal distribution of funds with providing information to society about the educational problems, it will become possible to have more equal distribution of funds, from which America will have a great benefit. Sources: web web web web web


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Research essay sample on Inequalities In Public Education Part 2

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