Educational Funding in the United States

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Economy of the United States of America has become relatively unstable due to frequent changes in global economic trends. The weakened national economy can particularly be attributed to the current shortage of energy resources. It is assumed that the U.S economy has been affected by the recent oil crisis which has not yet gotten over, although the government has made great efforts to curb the problem.

Due to increased funding of the U.S energy sector, funding of other sectors has been affected with a number of them receiving inadequate budget allocations. For instance, education sector has been receiving insufficient funds for the past few years leading to the current challenges (Armstrong, Henson & Savage, 2009).

Owing to the decreased educational funding by the National Government, all States in the U.S experience inadequacy funding in the education sector. However, various States have designed effective economic strategies to counter this problem. The State of Illinois is among the U.S States which have designed efficient economic strategies aimed at supplementing national educational funding.

This initiative was adopted after the State’s educational sector experienced great challenges. Some of the challenges faced in education due to inadequate funding by the National Government include shortage of essential learning resources, inadequate staffing of all learning institutions and retarded development of physical infrastructure (Armstrong, Henson & Savage, 2009).

All these challenges have affected the quality of education in the whole of Illinois State, although institutions of higher learning such as universities receive more funding than High Schools and intermediate colleges.

According to Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, education funding in the State of Illinois has been increased gradually since 2006. Budget allocation statistics shows that the State’s budget on education reached the highest mark in 2003 when about $2,750,000 was set aside for the education sector.

Since then, budget allocation for this sector used to be reduced year after year until 2007 when Illinois State designed recovery strategies with the main objective of increasing educational funding. Education funding had been reduced to as low as $2,000,000 by 2007 from $2,750,000 in 2003. This was about 20% of the State’s total revenue.

Due to appropriate legislation in the State of Illinois, inflation has been brought down considerably. Consequently, the State’s budget allocation to all sectors has been increased leading great economic improvement.

Ralph Martire, who is the current Executive Director of Center for Tax and Budget Accountability claims that, “Over $ 9 billions out of $10 billions of the State’s General Fund was spent on education, healthcare, human services and public safety in the year 2010” (2011, p. 4).

Education received the largest share of about 35% followed by healthcare which received a slightly lower percentage of 30%, with human services and public safety receiving 21% and 5% respectively (Martire, 2011). Much more funds are expected to be allocated to the education sector in 2012 and the subsequent years as impacts of Inflation are reduced gradually.

Legislators in the State of Illinois have been very instrumental in enacting legislations aimed at improving educational funding. Fundamental legislations enacted since 2007 have led to an increase of Foundation Level from $5,334 to about $6,675 per child.

It has also been resolved that no district in the State loses any educational funding by ensuring that over 51% of the national average is spent on education. As a result, the State’s structural deficit has been diminished giving an indication of sustainable educational funding reform (Martire, 2011).

References

Armstrong, D., Henson, K., & Savage, T. (2009). Teaching Today: An Introduction to Education (8^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Martire, R., (2011). State of Illinois Budget Outlook. Retrieved From https://www.ctbaonline.org/

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Educational Funding in the United States

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