First Article

In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform

Summary:

The article “In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform” from Pamela Barnhouse Walters, Jean C. Robinson, and Julia C. Lamber is about the large differences in per-pupil spending money among school districts in the same state. It talks about how states are trying to equalize school financing. It also says that that does not work out really well, especially because some states and certain schools have ignored the rulings outright. The result of that is that there are still large differences and now there are “good” and “bad” schools. School finance reform would have dismantled this system that typically relegates children from poor communities and, as is less publicly recognized reserves the best public school for children in affluent communities. It talks about how there has to be a change because student’s education in poorly funded public school districts are getting affected. This article discusses the origins and current state of school finance reform.

Why is it worthwhile?

I chose this article because it talks about that a person can get a different education depending on what school he or she is going to and how much money the school or the person has. It ism also about how the United States tried to solve the problem but that there are still large differences between the different schools.

Two "pieces" of direct evidence:

“When Americans embrace equality as an abstract principle, they generally fail to understand that  by definition  some groups reap huge benefits from the inequality endemic to American public schooling. Similarly, little attention is paid to the fact that the "good" education privileged children generally get needs to be a  better  education than what is available to most others. That's because a "good" education is what economists call a positional good: its value rises in inverse proportion to its scarcity.”

” But if our goal is to make significant progress in closing the gap in resources and opportunities between our best and worst schools, we need to do more than tinker around the edges of the current system. We need to muster the political will and build the political coalitions necessary to make such a re-examination of the fundamentals possible.”

Citation in MLA format:

Walters, Pamela Barnhouse, Jean C. Robinson, and Julia C. Lamber. "In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform." Dissent. Fall 2011: 28-33. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 May 2012.