Us Poor Schools Need Funding Too!

I agree with Steve and his post that there needs to be greater accountability in schools when it comes to how money is spent. It is wonderful that the stimulus package sets aside 13 billion dollars to go towards disadvantaged children. It is important to our economy that every child receives a quality education. This will lead to a more skilled and educated workforce, and help our economy in the long haul. Unfortunately, many states and municipalities often take federal money that is desperately needed to fund these high need schools and use it for other purposes. They are performing a grave injustice by handing over much of this money to more affluent, higher performing schools. Why should these schools receive more funding than schools with a higher percentage of disadvantaged children?

There needs to be a device put in place to monitor how states and localities are dividing up monies for school districts. Like the auto or banking industry, maybe there should be a "watch-dog" to ensure each school is receiving the proper amount of funding. While I am sure that there will be loop-holes in the reporting requirement, it will hopefully curb some of the inequalities in school funding. Like Steve stated in his post, better bookkeeping practices need to be put in place so the differences in salary between teachers in high poverty versus low poverty schools can be seen. Maybe then, the salaries of teachers in these low income schools will be increased, attracting quality teachers.

I urge you to contact Governor Corzine and tell him that New Jersey's high need communities should be receiving equal, if not a greater amount, of educational funding. Let him know that there also needs to be supervision by the state on the municipalities to ensure the money is going to the proper place. Call his office and speak to one of his staff members at 609-292-6000 or email him through his website.