Why are Schools Always Begging for Money?

Abstract

Increasingly high expectations for student performance have led to greater pressures on school resources. While most families support the idea of high-quality schools for all students, funding has not matched this aspiration. Mr. Everhart explores economic shifts, including disproportionately lower tax rates for the extremely wealthy and most corporations, and suggests steps educators must take to adequately fund their schools. I GRADUATED from high school the year after Sputnik soared into space--an event that established forever the expectation that school improvement was tied to national political and economic goals. Soon thereafter, new federal and education money designed to support the race into space seemed plentiful. Today, we have other, equally lofty expectations--specifically, that all children will learn. However, today there is a radical difference from the Sputnik era: the responsibility for achieving the expectations of No Child Left Behind is placed largely on and local governments, which are severely strapped for resources. After high school I attended a private liberal arts college, where tuition costs were relatively reasonable. I earned about a third of my college expenses by working each summer, and my parents were able to afford the balance. Today, expenses at a private liberal arts college range upwards of $30,000 a year. Public universities are no longer supported; rather, they are state assisted. Graduation from a public university with a debt load of $30,000 or more is not unusual for many students. As I reflect on my 38 years in the education profession, it's crystal clear to me that financing public education has become increasingly difficult and contentious. Indeed, one theme seems to characterize the period from my entry into education in the late 1960s to the present: educational institutions have consistently been strapped for resources. Why has public education struggled to attain the resources so commonly denied it? Where does the answer to this question lie? In the school budget ledgers? In the tax revenues upon which school allocations are based? In the political context within which education revenues are allocated? Can we ever expect a turnaround in the level of education funding, or are we doomed to a future of continuing fiscal crisis? Finally, where should educators focus their energies in order to gain the necessary public support for more adequate funding of education? I attempt to address these questions in the remainder of this article. RISING EXPECTATIONS FOR EDUCATION Factors surrounding the financial support of public schools have changed dramatically throughout the nation's history, and these factors are closely tied to the expectations we have for our schools. How have our expectations changed over the past two centuries? According to historian Patricia Graham, the expectations for our school system have evolved through three different periods. (1) The first period was associated with the creation of a system of common schools that the majority of students were expected to attend. This period lasted well into the early 20th century and was highlighted first by the creation of local public elementary schools in the early to mid-19th century and then by the extension of schooling into high schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Public expectations during this era focused on school attendance and continued to rise--that is, students were expected to attend a public school for increasingly longer periods of their lives. We well know, however, that the duration of students' public school careers was not the same for everyone. Students from higher-status families attended for more years than students from lower-status families. In addition, these more privileged students usually attended higher-quality schools. On average, boys attended school for longer periods than girls, and whites had higher attendance rates than children from minority groups. …