School Finance (Class Reaction)

The basic idea behind using sales tax verses property taxes to fund schools makes sense. In the beginning when Dr. Pope began discussing tax allocation and school districts, my immediate thought was back to the video about the Corridor of Shame that we watched in Dr. Ferguson’s class. Dr. Pope bringing up the video later on during his lecture further confirmed my train of thought. Since this change has only occurred within the last three years, South Carolina has an opportunity to show that they are all about progress in education, as each state likes to claim.
The situation prior to this new answer to funding schools does not seem like rocket science. I am sure the funding discrepancy has been reported to state officials for years, and yet they are just now reacting to the situation. It just seems that a governing body full of educated individuals would be able to see that property tax is discrimination in itself. Therefore, how could this have been the chosen method for funding schools? A poor school will remain poor and likewise with a rich school when using this basis because of other associated factors. The outcome is not having enough money to pay teachers what a neighboring county or district is offering as salary, not having enough money to buy classroom resources for students, and the biggest concern of not being able to build better schools because of lack of funding. As Vincent mentioned, states do not want the federal government involved over their curriculum and other school related issues. If the states are showing that they are not capable of handling the issues, then maybe the federal government should get involved. In my opinion, there should be a federal mandate for the United States as a whole on how money is allocated to schools. There are some things that the federal government should stay out of, but when an aspect of government that is said to be one of the most important establishments in the US has repeatedly failed, then someone higher up needs to step in and manage. There is no way these schools could have been meeting even what was titled as “minimally adequate” standards unless those standards were below the state’s standards. Think about it. Students in the video could not meet South Carolina science requirements because of lack of lab facilities and resources for chemistry and biology classes. The Constitution does not mention the word education. More specifically, in 1973 the US Supreme Court made it official that children are not guaranteed the right to an education (http://www.oured.org/pages/FAQs). The federal government has given the states the order to provide education to their citizens. There is a possibility that this could be where the problem began.