What does money really have to do with schools?
In a capitalistic society like America, money is everything. Having money opens a lot of doors for you, and, unfortunately, this extends to our school system. Money impacts what resources schools have to offer, and it also directly impacts the students.
The primary funding of public schools in Texas comes from property taxes. This varies drastically among different areas. If you live in a more rural and less wealthy area, the property taxes are likely to be a lot less. Due to the lack of funding, students who live in these areas often attend schools that do not have many resources. This may prohibit children from learning new interests from the lack of classes offered or even prohibit disabled children from attending certain schools that do not have funding for special education programs. I have known many families who have had to take their disabled children to schools that are much farther than their local schools because of this. Disabled students who do not have a family member that is able to transport them for 30+ minutes every day are subjected to schools that do not have the resources that support them.
Private schools also often have many more resources and activities than public schools, but their tuition prices can be steep. For underprivileged students, attending private schools is not an option. Having the funds to attend these prestigious schools gives wealthy students an upper hand in the world, which causes disproportionate success rates.
Chandra Villanueva of TribTalk stated that better-funded schools have more opportunities for hands-on learning and smaller class sizes. This is likely because these schools have the funds to hire an adequate amount of staff members to best suit their student population. With smaller class sizes, the teacher can focus more on each student and give them the best chance of success. With large class sizes and few staff members, students and their struggles may get overlooked.
Overall, money is a huge part of our school system and is a big factor in students' success. We must do something to combat this and give children all over our nation the same chance of achievement and success.
Hey Cayenne, I really agree with you that money is a huge factor and it definitely contributes to how a student may succeed. Like you mentioned, more money means more resources available to help achieve academic success. When I was in public school, I went to an underfunded school district and our class sizes were bigger and it was harder for some of my classmates to get 1 on 1 time with the teacher because of the class size. Had we had more money to have smaller classes I feel like some of my classmates could’ve benefitted from this. This personal experience of mine is just another example of how money really does play a huge factor in our education system. Hopefully we can figure out a solution to this and make sure that all students are getting a proper education regardless of the money available. I think that once this problem can be solved, our education system will have made major improvements.
ReplyDeleteHi Zoe!
DeleteThank you for your comment and sharing your personal experience! My school was also underfunded, and we had to do a lot of fundraising. One thing my school did to help was using DonorsChoose. It's a website where people from anywhere can donate money for specific things the school needs. We got flexible seating options, SmartBoards, and air purifiers donated to our school through this website. I think it is a really amazing platform that more schools should look into if needed.
Hi Cayenne! I really liked reading your blog post! I completely agree with you that money has a large part. Students who live in less wealthy area often don't have the same access to resources, so often the teacher have to pay out of their own pockets to get supplies for their students. I think it is unbelievable that schools are not funded enough and do not provide supplies for the students
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