Briefly describe how reforming school financing will help achieve equal educational opportunity in the United States

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Educational opportunities are often lacking for minorities and the poor in the United States. Nearly everyone agrees that there should be equal educational opportunity for all. But there is considerable disagreement on how this can be achieved. One of the proposals for progressing toward equal educational opportunity is reforming school financing so that an equal amount of money is spent on each student's education.
Schools in wealthy districts tend to receive considerably more money per student than schools in poor districts. Currently, a majority of the revenue for school districts in practically all states comes from local property taxes. Decaying inner cities are especially hard-pressed to finance school systems, and many schools in these areas are inferior. There is growing opposition in the United States to using property tax dollars as the primary source of revenue for funding school systems. Taxpayers on fixed incomes (such as retired older persons) are increasingly unable to pay large annual increases in their property tax bills. In 1993, taxpayers in Michigan voted to abolish using property tax revenues to fund the public school system in that state. In 1994, voters in Michigan approved a constitutional amendment to raise the state sales tax and cigarette tax as the primary sources of supporting the state's schools. One result of this action in Michigan is movement toward equalizing among school districts the amount of money spent on each student's education. Some other states are moving in a similar direction. Another suggestion for equalizing the amount of money spent on each student's education is for the federal government to pay for all primary and secondary education, giving the same amount of money per student to each school.