Yes, school funding matters

Here are your choices:

1. Status Quo
2. Have the Feds go in like they did with discrimination in voting and just completely take over education.
3. Tell the localities that you are on your own, sink or swim, but you are not taking other people's money to solve problems you cause or create.
4. Completely socialize education in the States, no local education at all, just state run and financed. Every school gets the exact same thing. A school in the most rural part of the state is per capita funded just like a school in the largest city. Every school gets the same equipment. Same books, same number of pens. Same band equipment. Teachers are rotated every year so no teacher gets to stay in the same school.

 

Before you said we were asking "teachers/schools to do the impossible." Given the topic and direction of the conversation, it was pretty clear you feel some situations involving kids are not worth spending money to try and help. I'm wondering what those situations are and which kids are in them.

 

You've now framed the argument in a completely different way. You could make a thin case that they're the same, but they really aren't.

"We don't know if this will be better than the opportunity costs because of scarce resources" is not the same argument as "this might be ineffective, so it's not better than nothing."

 

Fair point: I'll reframe ...

Doctor, it is almost certain that doing more of this won't make a difference.

Do you have an alternative in mind?

No, I am not at present aware of an alternative. But since it's almost certain that doing more will have the same effect as doing nothing more, what does it matter?

 

So you do more and you adapt how you do it, because the alternative is giving up on teachers and students facing the near impossible and that is not acceptable.

 

I'm game for "adapt," even if it costs more. But "adapt" isn't the same thing as simply "more."

 

I disagree, but the reframing is fair

 

Agreed. If the system isn't working, pumping in more money may be part of the solution, but it is rarely enough without also changing how things are being done.

 

But it wouldn't be doing the same thing over again. If the problem you want to address is childhood poverty, a list of objectives could be identified that would help mitigate problems associated with childhood poverty. For example, gap-filling services (pre-school, breakfast, after-school dinner/study hall/tutoring, summer programs, medical/dental/health exams, etc.) could be delivered, as Dixiehack mentioned, in a more efficient way because much of the infrastructure -- building/shelter, transportation, kitchen, food services personnel -- already exists in schools. It doesn't mean you have social studies teachers cleaning teeth.

If you want to address other aspects of adult poverty (drug/alcohol abuse, job training, counseling), maybe there are other routes you need to take, but for addressing kids already in the school system, schools make a lot of sense in terms of service delivery.

 

By God I wouldn't do that without tenure!

 

OK, but that's not school funding. That's simply using existing resources and assets more fully.

As an aside, I suspect it'd be a helluva legal mess, seeing as how schools are often owned/overseen by one authority while the providers of these other services are owned/overseen by others. So that'd probably mean a whole raft of administrators/coordinators would be needed ... heyyyyyyyyyy.

 

I disagree. Public schools have delivered these types of services -- preschool, after-school, summer school, study hall, tutoring, health/medical, recreation, meals, nutrition -- at varying levels my entire life. We just need to understand that those services are needed much more in impoverished areas (and more now than ever) than in middle-class and wealthy areas.

The thing is, equal funding isn't going to cut it. These areas need significantly more funding on those things that directly affect the kids -- programs and services that mitigate poverty as well as more and better teachers, facilities and materials.