School Funding Essay

I’m Ashley Nord, an 8th grader at Kingsley Junior High School. In my social studies class we are learning about our responsibilities as citizens and how it is our duty to inform our representatives about our concerns and the issues we find in our community. I live in Bloomington, Illinois, so you are the senator who can make a change in our community. I’m concerned about education funding in our state. Mainly on the gap between districts; how some are able to renovate their schools and build more. Then, you have schools that are struggling to make ends meet. The fact that this is happening in a state is what really concerns me. You could have one district thriving, but a couple miles south you have schools educating students without supplies

What we are teaching and how we are teaching will impact how these children will act and what they will do in their adulthood. Teachers and the education system get the responsibility of molding these children’s minds, attitudes and way of thinking. The funding gap in our state is astonishing to me and many others. Statistics show just how corrupt our way of funding is. Districts that have more students in high poverty receive less money than districts with less students in low-income households. Studies by The Education Trust also show that the money mainly goes towards just 40 districts. Cook County, it's collar districts and Chicago receive much of it. Those numbers are insane to me. According to one website, there are 863 public school districts in Illinois. 40 districts. 40 out of 863 districts is where the majority of the money goes. That’s roughly 21% of our state’s districts. That statistic is just mind blowing to me and should be to you as well. The Education Trust says that Illinois ranks the lowest on a graph showing how the funding gap between Illinois highest and lowest poverty districts compare with other states. The Education Trust explained the graph perfectly saying, “ By far the largest gap is in Illinois, where the highest poverty districts receive nearly 20 percent less state and local funding than the lowest

For a 1,000-student high school, it means $1.2 million in missing resources.” They used a middle school to represent a low poverty district and a high school to represent a high poverty district. By giving less money to students in high poverty, we are making it harder for those children to get out of poverty. Teachers will look for the schools that will pay them the best, so they won't consider working at the poor, run-down schools. We aren't giving those children the education they deserve and need in order to make a living. In Illinois, the way they determine how much money your district is given, is essentially by your zip code. They look at how much you pay on property taxes, and if you have higher taxes, you get lower funds and if you have lower taxes they will give you more money. Sound fair, because 56% of our education funding comes from our local state property taxes, right? Once you look more into it, there are cracks in this system. There are 2 main ways that districts are essentially able to cheat the system, and get more money, even though they don’t really need it. The first is because the GSA has changed their