School funding and resources Essay

These issues have not started today but have been in existence for a long time. One of the major issues is inequity and inadequacy. There is a funding difference between the tax wealthy district schools and the poor school districts that have tax capacity that is limited. This to some extent affects the education quality due to low financial resources (Crawford, 2006). Secondly there is the issue of political ideology. Politics affect the funding in schools greatly. Politics affect the budgeting that takes place in schools. The schools have limited authority on imposing extra taxes for educational purposes unless they gain full support of the legislature. Level of funding is dependent on the resources available for these resources to be fully utilized the legislature must be in full support. Another major issue facing funding in schools is the social influence. The influence that comes from the surrounding environment of the schools matter a lot to how the resources are utilized and how funding takes place. If there is negative social influence then the issue of funding becomes very difficult. Positive social influence is important both in urban and suburban areas (Bartolomeo, 2004). The problem of inequity and inadequacy can be addressed by ensuring that all schools receive funding depending on their size and location. It can also be solved by ensuring that the schools with little resources get extra funds. The strengths of these solutions are such as it will upgrade schools that are at low levels. However the weakness is that it is difficult to give some schools more funds than others and call that equity (Crawford, 2006). To solve the problem of political ideology the schools should be allowed to tax some extra fee when necessary for school funds. Also the legislature should not be playing a role on determining the amount to be taxed. The strength of this solution is that the schools will have a chance to make funding decisions better while the weakness it has is that it could lead to poor budgeting. The solution to negative social influence is ensuring that the surrounding individuals are not too involved in school funding matters. Also ensuring that the school is not affected by external factors when it comes to funding could help. The strength of these solutions is that funding will be easier. Its weakness is that schools could loose on some other aspects it gains from social influence (Bartolomeo, 2004). References Bartolomeo, C. (2004). The funding divide. American Teacher, 6-7. Crawford, C. (2006). The Critical Issue of Financing Schools. the Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 22-26.