How Is Public Education Funded in America? — 1/8/17
Throughout our reading groups, we’ve repeatedly wondered whether many of the social and economic inequalities in America can be traced back to the education gap — the disparity in education performance between different populations of students. Thus, education reform is of particular interest because it may serve as a viable long-term strategy to combat socioeconomic inequalities. So, how do we go about education reform — should we just naively pump in money to poorer schools?
We first need to understand how public school funding is dispersed in the first place. The purpose of these readings is to explore K-12 funding in greater detail.
All Readings:
(1) Excerpt from “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol.
(2) Document on education equity and what it means by the Center for Public Education.
(3) A primer on K-12 education funding by the CPE.
(4) Two resources from the Education Commission of the States (ECS): an overview of K-12 funding and a more in-depth guide on state funding formulas.
(5) A Public Education Primer by the Center on Education Policy.
Acknowledging the Educational Gap
First, we need to acknowledge the existence of the education gap and empathize with those that have been disadvantaged by it.
(1) Excerpt from “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol. This excerpt discusses the conditions of schools in New York. Note that this book was published in 1991, but many of the inequalities Kozol details still persist today.
Understanding the Problem
(2) Document on education equity and what it means, by the Center for Public Education (CPE). The CPE, an initiative of the National School Boards Association, is a resource for information on public education in America. This document provides a good overview of the questions we should be thinking about.
How Does Funding Work?
The bulk of the reading is focused on understanding the complicated mechanisms in place that determine how much money is allotted to public schools throughout America. Things to think about while reading: does this system make sense, and are there any obvious improvements?
There will be some redundancy between these resources, but that’s okay: it’s useful to reinforce the information and compare between sources.
(3) A primer on K-12 education funding by the CPE. This reading includes the linked article as well as the articles under the “Also in this guide…” box to the right.
(4) Two resources from the Education Commission of the States (ECS): an overview of K-12 funding and a more in-depth guide on state funding formulas. The ECS is a result of an interstate compact on education policy. It provides resources on a variety of education policy issues.
(5) “A Public Education Primer” by the Center on Education Policy (CEP). This is a long document, but is an easy read and consists mainly of graphs and data. The relevant section begins on page 17, but I recommend at least skimming through the entire thing. There’s a lot of useful information here. The CEP is “is a national, independent advocate for public education and more effective public schools.”
