Are our schools following the constitutional requirement of providing an equal education to all children? When specifically referring to children who live in poverty, the answer is no, they are not.
In addition to public schools, options such as private and charter schools. This was done to make different opportunities available for families of all economic levels. Unfortunately, for various reasons, they are not always accessible to low-income families for reasons like access to reliable transportation.
School districts lose funding when money is taken from them and provided instead to these other entities. It has caused a large percentage of public schools to lose valuable income, making it difficult to meet even the minimum requirements for providing an adequate education. This funding inequity leads to a lack of special education services, adequate/safe facilities, current textbooks, appropriate technology, and most importantly—highly-qualified teachers.
I spent 25 years teaching at economically disadvantaged elementary schools and currently teach graduate courses in education.
So what can we do about it? Funding for public school districts need to stay in the districts. Services provided in education are still available for everyone who attends public schools. For this to happen, all funding allocated for education needs to stay in public school districts. Let’s make our communities great again.
—Dr. Marie A. Warren,
Port Huron
