Poverty and Education: School Funding Reinforces Inequality

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Impact of Funding to quality of education
Effect of racial and economic integration on the quality of education
Basic Education and Segregation
Economic factors and Segregation
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Government funding in education was primarily supposed to help all the children in acquisition of basic education. New York City has a high population; the funding is higher to cater for all the students. Needs of the students from New York City are higher than those in other states. The government supplied the highest amount of funds in New York City Schools, but the inadequacy made them to achieve the poorest results.

Impact of Funding to quality of education

Fiscal Equity campaigns filed a court case to challenge the constitution on the governments role in funding these schools. The government had promised to finance public schools so as to enable them acquire basic education; but it failed because it did not provide adequate funds for the students. This was clearly shown by the outcome of their performance. Public schools were performing poorly compared to private schools. Funding had led to poor performance but could be improved if the state government provided adequate funds for the students in terms of needs, inputs and outputs (Campaign, 2003).

Effect of racial and economic integration on the quality of education

The quality of education in government funded institutions was lower than that of non funded institutions. This was because of the teachers in these funded institutions perhaps were not well motivated or qualified in their duties. The facilities such as libraries and books were also below the standards of the private schools. In The city of Rochester, there were 15 African American students who had poor performance in school. Majority of the students in their district were poor and racially isolated.

This was a clear indication that majority of African Americans were living in poverty. Their education quality was thus affected since they could only rely on the funded education that was not doing well at that time. Education quality was subject to economic status of the people. White people mostly got quality education because they could readily afford to pay fees for their children where schools are fully equipped. The state failed to incorporate all schools to one category and this was the major cause of separation of the rich and the poor students background (Paynter, 2003).

Basic Education and Segregation

The New York state constitution promised to be responsible for provision of maintenance and support of the public schools; so as to ensure that all children got the basic education. The initial idea was to desegregate children by taking all children to school to acquire common education. However, failure of the legislature to fulfill its mandate brought segregation. The rights of the children were violated. Children who were supposed to acquire quality skills to promote their productivity did not acquire quality education. Basic literacy of mathematics and communication was highly affected by inadequate funds in their schools. Public schools failed to change with time by failing to care for their present needs. The modern society was changing as well as the skills which could be useful to the society at that time (Campaign, 2003).

Public schools did not change with changes in the private schools such as technology. This created a good platform of separation and segregation between the rich and the poor. The outputs in funded schools could not compare with the outputs in the private schools and this also turned out in their results. The scores of the students from the funded schools were far much lower than those of non funded schools. As time went on, a greater gap was created since those from public funded schools were not competitive in the job market; and so their children were most likely to attend the same schools with low quality of education (Campaign, 2003).

Economic factors and Segregation

These problems led to amendment of constitution of the United States. Brown V. Board of Education worked towards integration of schools. The board stated that, Opportunity of an education&is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms (Paynter, 2003, p. 1). This was better than the previous Paynters claim that argued that segregation in schools was a violation of the New York Constitution. Brown won its case. However, this did not fully settle the case of inequality.

Conclusion

The new landmark was made by changing the approach of the problem from equality to adequacy. States started concentrating on individual pupils in schools. This made a great contribution to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. This is mainly by improving the quality of education even to the poor. The court cases contributed greatly in changing of funding system as well as improving the quality of education (Burke, 2011).

References

Burke, A. V. (2011). Has the landmark school funding case improved students outcomes? Web.

Campaign. (2003). Campaign for Fiscal Equity V. State of New York. Web.

Paynter. (2003). Segregation of the New Yorks Schools. Web.

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