Importance of Funding

Emily Lay

Political Science 101

J. Sulcer

Term Paper

4/7/18

Importance of Funding

I attended a village board meeting on the evening of Monday, April 2nd, 2018. The meeting was attended by those in the community who wanted to make public comments to the board. The cemetery board expressed to the village board about the lack of funding from our state government and they went on to say they cannot do their jobs correctly. This made me decide to do my paper on the importance of funding in government programs such as education.

Funding in governmental programs are very important. Without funding from the government, many programs, such as education, would not exist. Funding is important because there has been a lack of it. Jang Wan Ko states, “School finance equity has been one of the key issues in educational policy for the past few decades” (559). Funding schools is key to giving access to a great education. Steve Brachmann states, “Governmental funding supports various aspects of American research and development in the areas of science and health. Government agencies also support American culture, including education and the arts” (Brachmann). Funding in government programs is not only beneficial to the people involved but the country also. This funding could change lives for the greater good and give people opportunities. The education system relies heavily on the funding they get. It is both the federal and state government’s jobs to fund the education system. Brachmann proposes, “The U.S. Department of Education estimates that $1.13 trillion was spent on educational funding through government funding programs during the 2010-11 school year. Most of this funding, 89.2 percent, came from state and local governments, while the other 10.8 percent of government funding came from federal agencies including the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services” (Brachmann). That amount of money is very high but in order to keep our education system going lots of funding must go into the program. State governments come up with almost all the funding, but the federal government has an important part in it too. Catherine C. Sielke illustrates, “As we have learned from decades of school finance litigation, equity is dependent on state funding to mitigate variations in local wealth, generally expressed by income or property tax bases” (653).  Schools depend on state government very heavily because that is where most of their education funding comes from. Summarily as in previous years the U.S. Department of Education states, “Of an estimated $1.15 trillion being spent nationwide on education at all levels for school year 2012-2013, a substantial majority will come from State, local, and private sources” (U.S. Department of Education). Within a span of a few years the funding has gone up because of the importance of the education system. I can imagine that as years go on we will see the amount of funding for the education system continue to skyrocket. The U.S. Department of Education continues, “Although ED's share of total education funding in the U.S. is relatively small, ED works hard to get a big bang for its taxpayer-provided bucks by targeting its funds where they can do the most good” (U.S. Department of Education). The state government may have a bigger role in funding, but the federal government works just as hard to supply the funding for education. The importance of funding is still the same and it just means that it depends on two forms of government to help out. The funding from both of the governments is critical and crucial to our education system. In recent years, funding has become so much more important because states all over the country have had to deal with the lack of funding for education. Michael Leachman, Kathleen Masterson, and Eric Figueroa suggest, “Public investment in K-12 schools — crucial for communities to thrive and the U.S. economy to offer broad opportunity — has declined dramatically in a number of states over the last decade” (Leachmen, Masterson, and Figueroa). Funding is the single most important thing for government programs, like education, and it is being targeted because of the lack of money. Derek Black notes, “Recent data shows that two-thirds of states are funding education at lower levels than in 2008. Some states are 20% or more below levels of just a few years earlier. The effect on schools has been devastating. States are only exacerbating the problem by reducing teachers’ rights and benefits” (423). This is a devastating effect because teachers all over the country will not be able to fully perform their job. The teachers are limited to what they can do and that is unfair. They in turn have to suffer consequences because the government cannot get the funding for them and the children will suffer too. Some could say that schools aren’t providing an adequate education.  Now more than ever it is so important that both governments let education have the proper funding. The lack of funding has caused more conflicts to arise. In light of these recent cuts and decreases, many potential future teachers have chosen to pursue a different career and the result is that nationwide there are not enough teachers (423). This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed more. Schools need teachers and teachers need funding, so they can provide students with the proper education. Black remarks, “When the school year began in 2015, many public schools opened without enough certified teachers to fill classrooms, relying instead on substitutes and interns on a full-time basis and in other instances, schools stopped offering certain classes” (423). The state and local governments do not seem to understand the depth of this issue. The lack of funding is hurting our education system more and more every day. This impacts students of all ages and could lead to widen achievement gaps and impose learning deficits that some students will never overcome. Dr. Vivian W. Ikp reports, “These schools, like many other social institutions located in urban communities, are overburdened and severely underfunded. Many individuals in these distressed districts characterized by overcrowded classrooms, outdated resources, and limited funding, face day-to-day challenges that force them to develop and implement creative survival techniques” (Ikp). Adequate funding for education at the state and federal levels is necessary in providing needed resources to support K-12 and postsecondary education. Schools need those resources in order to be a proper place of education. When students do not have that they suffer and unfortunately may be behind when they move on to higher education. Rachel R. Ostrander suggests, “Without an adequate education, students in low schools face an extremely difficult, uphill battle to become productive members of society” (271). Students are heavily influenced by their education and when it is poor their future hangs in the balance. “Indiana has had major issues with education funding and teachers being paid less. Jeff Hauswauld adds, “Public schools have been grossly underfunded for the past eight years starting with the 2009 biennial budget for the 2010 fiscal year and continuing to present day. Over the past eight years, Indiana has fallen further and further from meeting this goal” (Hauswauld). This funding matters because teaching is an honorable profession and teachers should be fairly compensated for the important work that they are doing. Hauswauld admits, “According to a new research report from The Economic Policy Institute, teachers earned 17 percent less than other college graduates in 2015. This is the largest gap in the last 35 years. This gap has grown only larger since 2010” (Hauswauld). Teachers should be adequately paid, and students should get the proper funding for their education because it benefits both in the future. Teachers have a prominent role in shaping a child’s education and with recent events, the future does not seem so bright for some schools. The importance of funding for government programs is very important because that is how schools make a difference, provide a quality education for students and gives teachers the ability to create a great environment for children.