http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-school-funding-still-unconstitutional/
In Texas the public school finance system was once again declared unconstitutional by the State District Judge John Dietz. He ruled that the state has not funded public schools sufficiently, and has distributed money unequally among wealthy and poor areas of the state. This is not the first time this has happened in Texas, the problem dating back to 1968 when students and parents first sued over run-down schools in poor areas. Now, the system is ruled unconstitutional for not providing equal access to state funds for schools, what Judge John Dietz refers to as the "Robin Hood funding formula". Dietz also blames the state Legislature for not providing enough funds for the public school system. In 2013, after major cuts to public education in 2011, $3.5 million was added to the school fund, but the problem still exists. Although this takes place in Texas and is by no means a national case (education is a state responsibility), this problem relates to many other states where education is under funded.
The issues over public school finances in Texas are different than the under funding in Utah, but it seems to me that the basis of both problems is money, which is why this article caught my eye. It is true that simply pumping more money into the education system will not make schools perform better, but teaching the young population as cheaply as possible isn't really effective either. In class we have been talking about the role of government and what things it is meant to do and not meant to do. According to John Locke's 2nd Treatise of Civil Government, the role of government is to provide protection of peoples' rights (life, liberty, limb, health, and property/possession), establish laws, and enforce laws; however, in order to have these benefits of an organized society and government, the people must be willing to give up some of their freedoms. Education doesn't really fit into any of Locke's basic rights very well, but you can apply the same concept to it that Locke was suggesting. We give up something (in this case money through taxation) in order to have a service provided to us that is better than what we could do on our own. Some people think they can get something for nothing, but if we want more funding for education than we must be willing to pay more in taxes, and the government that we have established should reflect our needs and put the money where we the people want it (and need it). That means that if Utah has more children to educate, then we have to pay more to educate them. Then that money needs to be used to equally benefit every child enrolled in public education (which was the problem in Texas schools).
Unit 1
It sounds like everyone needs to create their own committee of teachers, McMurray you can head ours, and they can decide what happens with funds. They're the only ones that actually know what needs funding, seeing as they actually know what it takes to educate someone.
ReplyDeleteI think across the board there needs to be more funding for education. Education is the backbone of our nation and its economy and for the sake of the welfare of the people there needs to be more funding and equal opportunity for all. I sure hope this doesn't happen a lot because if he really is mishandling funds and allocating money right he needs to be stopped along with everyone else who is doing it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Connor. If more people were well educated, there would be a higher chance for success in everyone's lives.
ReplyDeleteIf you have everyone working off minimum wage without a higher education, then who has money to buy anything? Having a more educated population leads to a better economy. Also, we'll be less of the "ignorant masses" that the Framers of the Constitution feared.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma. If we spend more money on children to get an education now we will have less issues in the future with families that don't have enough money/job to provide in the future.
ReplyDeleteEducation is vital to the success of the future. Sufficiently funding it is just as essential. The better prepared students are, the better they can get good jobs, and bring in economic boosts and tax money in the future. It's in everyone's best interests to make education a high priority, the students need good educations and good jobs, government needs citizens who can subsist independently of government support, and who provide a good tax base for the services provided by its programs. There is a ton of money put in education currently by state governments, the only problem is that in states with growing populations, more and more resources will be needed in the coming years. Utah is a good example of this, except we are already well behind the curve in per-student funding, and the population continues to expand. We may need tax adjustments in the coming years in order to pay for more kids being in schools, and that may mean decreasing the tax exemption values for children, in state income taxes.
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