By Tenley Dawson — Education has a big role when shaping students for their futures. Parents send their kids to school to learn fundamentally important aspects for life.
But how are parents supposed to trust schools and teachers that work year around with their kids if teachers are limited to less-then resources and support?
The root of this problem is funding. According to News 6 report from the beginning of the school year, the Department of Education is currently withholding over $6 billion in federal payments to school districts nationwide. The funds, initially scheduled for release on July 1, are being withheld “to ensure that funded programs align with the current administration’s priorities” This lack of funding is negatively impacting the quality education students deserve, making effective learning difficult.
Another published report noted districts are leaving some vacant positions open for next school year.
Are you sure your child is receiving a teacher’s full attention and being given maximum opportunities to succeed and grow? How can you expect this when money is being taken out of programs then placed in others as well as all teacher positions not being filled?
Overcrowding is another problem in schools. From my time in middle and high school, we have always had classes with at least 30 or more kids, in it making it difficult to have a teacher dependable to answer questions all the time.
From “Education Funding and Low-Income Children: A Review of Current Research”, Kevin Carey writes, “Class-size reduction programs, when properly funded and implemented, have resulted in substantial, lasting improvements in student achievement.”
When schools receive appropriate funding and use this established class sized reduction initiative, students gain more from the personal attention from their instructors leading to better understanding and progress.
A local elementary school teacher noted teachers may not have the budget to buy hands-on materials, science supplies, art materials, or different learning tools.
“This makes it more challenging to meet different needs of different learning styles,” the teacher said.
Some who object to the idea that funding is the problem and place blame with schools or teachers may claim that they just don’t use their resources correctly, or the school purposely misplaces the funding. But clearly, teachers do care — they dedicate themselves to their students as educators just trying to meet all different kinds of learning needs.
Thanks to unevenly-spread resources, schools lack materials, programs, and support necessary for educational opportunities despite teachers dedication causes funding issues from the very start.
And we aren’t the only ones recognizing it. “The state not only ranked dismally for adequacy of funding level, but perhaps more surprisingly, the report found the state’s distribution of funds relative to district poverty level was highly unequal and regressive,” Christine Bramuchi of the Alliance for Public Schools said. “We as a state are failing and what are they doing about it?”
This unequal distribution means that schools in poorer districts are often receiving even less. This creates a system where students who already face challenges have fewer opportunities to succeed academically making it harder to provide high-quality that every student deserves.
In the future, exploring this lack of funding and how it affects schools will show even more consequences for student learning and overall education systems quality. If schools keep receiving too little funding classroom will continue to be overpopulated and students’ academics will decline along with more.
Over time, these conditions will create gaps in kids’ learning — and who knows what else.
With the funding, local teachers note extra help for students like tutoring, intervention materials, or smaller group lessons are possible. “That way, every student gets more of what they need, you can actually see them being better in class.”
As schools get reduced funding, the standard of education that students receive starts to decrease. Having overcrowding and decline in academic programs a complication in teacher ability to deliver effective instruction continues. As the difficulties increase, students might diminish their chances to not only grasp the concept but not have a will to learn.
In all, the insufficient funding that schools get affects the quality education students deserve and complicates learning. With little up to date resources, teachers and students find themselves in situations that fail to provide complete support for success.
Tenley Dawson is a dual enrollment student at Valencia College from Kissimmee.
