FUNDING!!

I am going to be talking about lack of funding in the public schools and what repercussions this has brought to the kids, teachers and the society as a whole. Citing examples from the book I would want to show how it really happens and what the governments part is in all this and even the society what role it plays and how really things go. There is lack of funding in Mary McLeod Bethune School as we see the children lie on the floors to have their naps and when the teacher wakes them up to read to them she is using an book that looks worn and old as if it has been used for many years and even the teacher herself is not warm or lively but just seems to do it because she has to and the kids are obedient and seem to like the fun of showing that they know the words this tells us how in society we are set in a way which we know what is needed of us and we tend to follow the rules regardless of the tough conditions since we know what is cut out for us and the background we come from shapes what kind of people we end up being. We also see that in a fifth grade class the flag is covered by chalk and there are a couple of pictures of leaves against the windows and it does not express the children’s creativity as you would expect in richer schools where the principals want the kids to do their own writings and share their art with the rest of the class. Some of the teachers feel like money is not the problem and blame it on the parents since they are not taking part in their kids’ life in school but this to some extent is not the parents blame as she plays her part in bringing the kid to school and it is not her fault that she is poor and cannot afford to take her child to a better private school and she had to make do with what she has. In the book we meet Mrs. Hawkins who has had to improvise things in her class because she says it never works to order things through the school system and this is because they lack funds to service all the needs of the students. This shows us how much some teachers are willing to sacrifice so the students can perform better in this case we see Mrs. Hawkins even following up with the parents so that the students can perform to their best and this is a hopeful portrait of the good things that go on under adverse conditions as quoted in the book (51) most of these kids come from the poor neighborhoods and what is in school is a reflection of what is happening at home and thus they do not feel like they have to energy to tackle it even if it is not their fault the school is not funded enough to give them the basic they need that is even more so their basic right. The lack of funding has also led to the Chicago system not attracting youthful teachers and this is because the salary scale is too low to keep them excited and this is turn makes the teachers who are already there demoralized and in turn pass it on to the students and in the end the kids feel like they are not going anywhere, we see teachers watching TV in the class and others even sleeping and letting the kids do what they want since they feel like they are not paid enough or do not have enough resources to make them go the extra mile. There is also a short supply of substitute teachers as we see classes that have missed teachers for a whole semester and this is for the basic classes where students feel like they need so that they can learn a skill that they can use to earn a dollar since they feel like they won’t go to college. The lack of funding also leads to a lack of supplies as we see a chemistry teacher reporting they do not have any supplies and have had to improvise soda bottles to make lab dishes compared to what the rich schools have this works out at a disadvantage since they will all eventually take the same standardized tests and it won’t be their fault they did not have the necessary equipment to learn at its best. The schools lack sporting supplies due to no funding and we see them lacking basketball hoops and swings in their playgrounds, also in the school that was once was a skating rink we learn that there is no playground and the classes get very hot during summer and cold during winter. The students even have to share a class with another class and this is because they cannot afford to build any more classes since they do not have any money. We see in the Lathrop Elementary school it has not had a library in the past 21 years and the few books they have sprouted mold and they also get behind in the learning schedules where we see them using texts the other way round since they received them in the opposite and out of sequence. The suburban legislators who often are opposing the funding of public schools use the terms “sinkhole” and say that they cannot keep throwing money into a black hole and this in so many ways is wrong because it comes out as if they mean they cannot fund the black people schools and in as much as they deny it we can never run away from it. Most of the public schools depend their initial funding’s on tax on local property but most of them come from deplorable places where they even flood and since tax depends on the value of the house really there is not much they can get from that environment and in the end there is less money for each child in these schools. The differences in the rich schools and in the poor schools is so unfair but the kids do not understand they are being cheated and should get a fair share and this in end makes them see themselves as failures since there is so much they are losing and the school themselves are in a sorry state and this leads to them staying out of school. We see also some kids not being able to join preschool because do not stand chances of achieving entrance into selective schools where they would most likely have chances and this makes them feel excluded and the rich kids also do not want to share the resources with them since they say they are going to pull them down but in the real sense if they only gave them a chance they would in fact pull them higher. The lack of funding also makes the people from the poor neighborhoods feel not wanted since even in day to day life it is hard since they get turned away when looking for housing and at the hospitals due to their position in the society and so this gives them less hope when they think about the public schools. We also get to see students in Goudy Elementary being badly hit since the teachers use materials that have been thrown out in most suburban schools and this is not by choice but since they do not have any better options, their slow students are taught with old textbooks and there is really no motivation to keep on going in there and when they get the texts like in the case where the student was given a dictionary and they started ripping out pages so that he could keep the words since he knows that the book might not just be there tomorrow and thus wants to keep it for himself now that he has the chance. We see at Goudy they lack even basic facilities such as the whole school just having two bathrooms that do not have toilet paper and thus the school is filled with stench this is because they do not have the money to purchase these things which may even seem like a luxury to them and in turn it is like a continuation of the problems they have at home where sewerage is a problem and the houses even flood with it. In contrary some of the public schools try to make the best out of what they have like in the case of Goudy where it is better managed than it was several years back and even though they had bad publicity they need the extra funds to at least get back on their feet but they do not always get what they deserve since if they do then some kids somewhere are going to miss out but they do try and stretch their resources since we even see them giving eighth graders textbooks for 15 year olds and this says a lot since they are stretching resources not just sitting there and complaining. The lack of funding also counts in what type of teachers are going to be in the public schools since there is no motivation and in the end “these children of poor districts can absorb only the most rudimentary and inexpensive instruction” and this begs to ask if the kids with no funding don’t have rights to the good things in life and in this case the good environment in school and also a good better utilities. Better school funding means tax increments and this people do not want to do and they argue that “you do not dump a lot of money into guys who have not done well with the money they have got in the past”. The leaders tend to be selfish and even though they pretend to be allies of the poor children all they do is ‘charity’ and they can refuse to give it at any given time and at times even do it just for the show like corporate responsibility just to get in the press and over rate everything. Finally if the society wants to be a part of this then they should open up the public schools and bring kids to go to school besides the rich people kids and use their money to buy school buses so that both sides can share in the spoils and instead of just playing the part and making the principals literally kiss their asses so that they can give them the extra cash they should want to be part of that whole community and a part of the poor kids who are not there by choice rather by circumstance.