Today, many people over look the importance of equality in the public school system. The government is to blame for this injustice in the school system and should be held responsible.  Government funding for public schools is mostly based on sales and income taxes for that surrounding district, and because there are a variety of incomes, taxes vary from each county leading to inconsistency. Inequality of education starts before a child even reaches kindergarten, and is carried throughout the rest of their educational career. In the modern world, education often leads to success and the government is responsible to provide and adequate, consistent primary and secondary education across America. There are many problems that students face within the classroom. Some buildings are severely rundown and may not have proper necessities for a child to learn, while other schools are updated with the latest technology and learning tools. Quality of teaching also varies from school to school because highly educated teachers seek out nicer schools with better resources and a higher salary. Students may also be forced to go to a school with lower funding due to lower test scores. All of these problems are due to unequal funding and lack of resources which causes an overall disparity in the school system. The unequal allocation of resources and the neglect of less fortunate schools results in an unequal and corrupt public school system. To fix this injustice, the government needs to reestablish funding distribution laws based on quality of schools, not income taxes of the district, and establish a standard of quality for every school. 

The inequality of the school system is derived from the inconsistent funding, so to understand schooling, an individual must first comprehend the funding issue. The Census Bureau recorded that total spending on elementary-secondary education was $602.6 billion dollars. Of the $600 billion, roughly $318 billion went to instruction, and about $180 billion went to support services such as operations and maintenance of buildings and equipment (US Census Bureau). This does not mean that the expenditures were evenly distributed throughout the schools across America. The Revenue for the public school system, which was roughly $593.7 billion dollars in 2010, were attributed from three major sources: formula assistance monies ($176.6 billion), followed by property tax monies ($170 billion), and lastly parent government contributions ($48.2 billion). Inequality is common due to the varying property taxes. A poverty induced inner city area has much lower property taxes than a wealthier suburban area, making the funding for the surrounding schools very unequal.

Funding is also distributed through overall school testing, basing kids' worth on numbers, which creates disparity in the United States. Standardized testing is often used to determine how well students are progressing in specific subjects. CNN reports "standardized tests have long been used as one measure of a student's progress in core subjects. But now, federal funding hinges on test results" (Kastenbaum). Across the country, schools with higher test scores receive a bonus, or more funding, which leads to unequal funding across the nation. For example: "President Obama's administration dangled an additional $4.3 billion dollars in front of school administrators in a competition called Race to the Top. In order to qualify for multi-million dollar grants states had to include test results" (Kastenbaum). This is a prime example of how corrupt the school system is, offering bonuses to schools with better test scores. This injustice is most commonly found that schools with higher test scores are found in wealthier areas, where the schools are often up to date and have all the proper resources. These schools are usually financially stable and do not need the extra funding as much as other schools across the district might. These bonus's and extra funding based off test scores is proof that the government is unfair and unequal when distributing money to schools across the nation.

A major component of the inequality of the the public school system is the poverty induced areas. The cycle of poverty is deadly and almost impossible to break. If a child in poverty goes through a poverty induced school, they are far less likely to receive passing test scores which puts them behind year after year, making their chances at a higher education very unlikely. In todays world, a college education is almost always necessary for a comfortable lifestyle. Without a higher education, a low-wage job is more common, and that salary usually puts an individual at or under the poverty line. According to Lindsay Cook of US News, minority students are at a different starting point, and have usually have lower expectations of their white counterparts. Families living in poverty may have limited access to materials, and are more likely to be enrolled in low-quality day care, if any day care at all which is detrimental to their development because it has been proven that high-quality early care provides a lasting impact on a child's education (Cook). So, before a child living in poverty even reaches elementary school, they are behind. Children do not get an equal chance in the educational system. It can be concluded that the wealthier school systems do not need the extra funding due to high test scores and nicer resources, as opposed to the under privileged schools who are so far behind they need any help they can get to catch up, in the book Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance, the authors give a solution to the problem of education gaps:

Only by eliminating opportunity gaps can we eliminate achievement gaps. Poor and immigrant children need the same sorts of schools' wealthy children have, only more so. Those who start life with the fewest of advantages need even smaller classes, even more art, science, and music to engage them, to spark their creativity and to fulfill their potential

  

 A majority of inequality comes from inner city schools, "black and Hispanic students are increasingly concentrated in central city public schools, many of which have become majority minority over the past decade while their funding has fallen further behind that of their suburbs" (Ravitch). High poverty areas are one of the greatest challenges faced by the government when trying to fund schools. Equity should require every student to receive sufficient resources to have the same chance to succeed, rather than that every child gets the same level of funding (Gjaja). 

Unequal resources cause inconsistent schooling that can be detrimental to an individual's growth. Numerous studies show that "technology has proven to accelerate struggling students close the learning gap between those at the back of the class and the A-students. In fact, 78 percent of Kindergarten through Middle School teachers agree that technology has had a positive impact on their classrooms" (Hendricks). Technology in a classroom brings a much more personalized learning curriculum to each student. In a classroom setting it is much easier for a student to get left behind on a subject, where as technology is catered to help the student become proficient in the subject matter before moving forward. Public schools across the nation are unequal because some schools do not receive the technology that others might have, and research shows technology in the classroom is very beneficial to a students learning. Technology could be a solution to large class sizes, especially in inner-city schools, as it would personalize each students learning experience.

Another resource that varies from school to school are the teachers and curriculums. Steve Inskeep reports for NPR on the No Child Left Behind Act, he interviews volunteer UC Berkley students who promote the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) program in local elementary schools. Many schools in the surrounding areas do not even have a basic science curriculum. Eric Westervelt comments on the podcast "Many local, state and federal bodies have come up short in their support of science education. So a national patchwork of groups, nonprofits, foundations, volunteers and companies are trying to fill the gaps. And there are big gaps".  This is a perfect example how the government is coming up short on their duty to educate Americas youth. If the curriculum varies nationally, it would be impossible for students to get an equal education nation-wide, considering some schools do not even offer science classes, which is a core class that every student should be required to take. Resources are also unequal throughout the nation as Closing the Opportunity Gap states: 

Disparity occurs for at least two reasons: upper-income parents lobby more effectively for academic programs, computers, libraries, and other supports and literate less neglect when it comes to building maintenance and physical amenities. Also, more-affluent schools generally secure more experienced and better educated teachers as schools with better conditions can attract a wider array of applicants.

Richer areas have parents who seek out better resources for their students. It is quite obvious how computers, libraries, and academic programs would put those students much further ahead than students without access to these amenities. Teachers also play a large role in the educational system. Rachel O'Brien reports for the Standford news on teachers and students, and her results are disturbing. It is commonly seen that higher achieving students are paired with more experienced, higher educated teachers, leaving other students with less experienced teachers; "Assigning lower-achieving students to inexperienced teachers could have significant repercussions. According to the researchers, it could increase turnover among new teachers, since novice teachers are more likely to quit when assigned more low-achieving students" (O'Brien).  Inexperienced teachers are less effective in the classroom, which leads to struggling students to fall even further behind. Not only is it frustrating to the students to have an inexperienced teacher, but it is frustrating to the teacher, and they are more likely to leave after one year, which repeats the cycle as new teacher will come to replace the one that left. The assignment of unexperienced teachers to a struggling classroom setting, promotes inequality in the school system. A lack of consistent teaching and curriculum nation-wide is contributing to the inequality of the school system.

Physical aspects of a school also effect the learning outcomes of students. The World Health Organization (WHO) produced a document called "The Physical School Environment" and it entails what makes a healthy learning environment for the public school system. The WHO requires schools to have proper ventilation and emergency care providers along with a many more requirements. A healthy school environment is very important because that is where a child spends a majority of their youth, and it is the governments duty to provide a safe and healthy learning environment. Inner city schools in Baltimore, Maryland do not have air conditioning but the wealthier suburban community Anne Arundel County has had air conditioning in their buildings for years (Boser). Once again, this proves how the wealthier areas have more updated schools, creating an unequal learning environment, leaving the struggling areas subject to poor learning condtions. However, US News reports that many schools are not up to code, and that the problem is far more serious than air conditioning. Other incidents of inadequate school enviorments include a collapsed roof, the growth of mold, poor air quality, and extreme temperatures. A more serious event took place in Pennsylvania in 2015. Gillian White reports for The Atlantic on public schools and their budgeting. The governor (now former governor) made significant cuts the education budget which resulted in many teachers losing their jobs, and the quality of the schools severely decreasing: "Earlier this year, two children died after getting sick at the district schools where no nurses were on duty due to budget reductions" (White). This very tragic event should be wake up call to the government that they cannot overlook the staffing and amenities of school buildings. This is the most extreme case, children dying due to budget reductions, but it should have never gotten to this point. Not only is it the governments responsibility to provide a healthy learning environment, but it is the law.  

There are clearly flaws within the current educational system, and they must be corrected so every student, no matter what background they come from, can have an equal chance at education. After extensive research it can be seen that the main problems within the current system are resources, teachers, and curriculum. To insure that all schools have equal resources, funding laws should be altered so that schools across the district have the same amounts of money, and rewards aren't given to the schools with the highest test scores.  It would be discouraging to less fortunate schools to constantly lose out on a large sum of money, and only set their students further back. Funding should be based off need, so that schools with a surplus of resources do not receive unnecessary funding.

 The next problem that the school system faces are the unreliable educators in the public school system, "Too many educators today excuse teachers, principals, and school superintendents who fail to substantially raise the performance of low-income minority students by claiming that schools cannot really be held accountable for student achievement because disadvantaged students bear multiple burdens of poverty" (Klein). Teachers and other educational staff are making excuses as to why their students are falling behind and blaming it on their background or race, and that simply is not the reason for their lower performance in school. President Obama states "The single most important factor in determining [student] achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from. It's not who their parents are or how much money they have -- it's who their teacher is". The importance and impact of a teacher is severely underappreciated. To fix this issue, educational staff should be held to a standard, and as examined earlier, putting the more experienced teachers with the lower preforming students to help close the education gap. The younger these students are when exposed to these improvements, the better off the school system will be.

The inconsistent curriculum across the nation puts students at a disadvantage, creating a lot of variety in what students learn, which does not lead to equal schooling . As examined earlier, some schools do not even offer basic science classes, which is crucial in primary and secondary education. The public school curriculum is unreliable throughout the nation and every school, grade, and even classroom varies so much from one another. The inconstancy causes an unequal learning system. An example of this inconsistency is in Michigan where researches examine the school systems at Michigan State, "student's mathematical learning opportunities related to content coverage are deeply affected by where the student lives and in which of the 13 local school districts or nine states he or she attends school" (Schmidt). These types of inequalities happen all over the country and it puts students at a serious disadvantage.

 A majority of America's youth is currently enrolled in public school and the government is responsible to educate them so that the next generations in America are educated, making a better, more educated democracy. "Unfortunately, many states are far from achieving even the same level of funding for students at different incomes ... many are quite inequitable in how they allocate education funding, paradoxically investing much more in the richest students than the poorest students" (Gjaja). It is imperative that the government fixes these major issues of allocation of resources, fair teaching, and uniform curriculums, so every child has an equal chance of success.

