Are all public schools created equally? Are all public schools funded equally? The federal government, and subsequently all state governments, mandate that all funding and public monies be distributed in an equal (not equitable…we have talked about the difference between these terms before) manner. So what does set one public school apart from another if actual funding is equal between schools?
The answer is actually peripheral funding, not public funding. Parent-teacher associations (aka PTA’s), booster clubs (often used to support extracurricular activities like athletics and student organizations), and human resource capital (aka people, volunteers, etc.) all add value to a given school that is not captured on a public budget document. At the end of the day, it is pretty much the same factors (same players involved) that make one community or neighborhood better than the one next door. It’s economics. You can’t give to a public school, or a community, or a neighborhood what you don’t have. Local public school issues are often reflective of the neighborhoods in which they exist (actually, vise-versa is true as well). Therefore, one cannot hold up sustainable reforms within a given public school or public school district without addressing that community’s economic well being.
Imran, I like this. And I agree that sustainable education reforms could be possible if we address the public school’s economic well being. I think we must go one step further in this address calling forth a homogeneous education-reform that chips away the economic, social, intellectual, psychological and spiritual well being of the community with no “separation of state.”