The Problem with Generalizing about America’s School
The Problem with Generalizing about America’s School, a review written by Jack Schneiders, focuses on a Nation at Risk report. The document’s general theme is the education system and its funding in America, especially on how different states fund their education system. The documents state that the different policy from various states on education creates a gap in the education system in the Americas. Education in some states is more preferred to others. Additionally, the federal money towards schooling is minimal, leaving much of the funding task to the school and the state the school is in (3)
What remains eye-catching and exciting from the document is property tax to generate funding towards education by the state. This is a disadvantageous and conflicting way because states are more developed than others; hence, their education system is more advanced than the less developed states. The author has stated this by comparing Massachusetts and Illinois, whereby Illinois solely depends on property taxes for education, making its education system less advanced and developed than Massachusetts. Additionally, it is easy to identify that schools in New York spend an estimated three times more per student than other states despite considering its high cost of living compared to schools in Utah3. This indicates that education funding in America by states is all dependent o what the states themselves want to contribute to their school districts.
Having gone through this document, I would post a question to the author on his opinions on America’s education funding. Are there possible solutions that can be applied to try and make the education system equal and as much important as that of another district? Additionally, are there other potential funding sources for schools other than property taxes, which is the primary funding source.