Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013

Joining the Conversation Step 3

Characters: Mr. Biddle: Unequal School Funding in the United States Mrs. Badertscher: Poor Schools get the Short End Mr. Grubb: The Money Myth Mr. Bush: No Child Left Behind Act Mrs. APA: American Physiological Association Mrs. Gardner: Me

Scene: At a very poor school in rural North Carolina a group of teachers are discussing the importance of school funding and how more funding would benefit their students. They are in a small conference room, just talking to one another before their weekly meeting with principals and board members begins. There are five teachers talking to each other: Mr. Biddle, Mrs. Badertscher, Mr. Grubb, Mr. Bush, Mrs. Gardner and Mr. Apa.

Mrs. Baderscher, Mr. Apa, and Mr. Biddle are sitting down at a table talking to each other as Mr. Grubb, Mrs. Gardner and Mr. Bush walk in, laughing about a joke told in the hallway, to take a seat next to them.

Mrs. Gardner: Hey, how is everyone today? Mrs. Baderscher: Looking down at her phone brokenheartedly. Not very good I guess considering I just got an email saying that next year some of our programs will be cut.

Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013 Mrs. Gardner: With a shocked expression on her face. Oh no thats not fun! What do you mean cut? What does it say? Mrs. Badertscher: Well the email reads We regret to inform you that due to lack of funding from the equalization fund, because of the collapse of the real estate market, we will be cutting some of our programs for next year. This will be put into action for next year August 2014. We will no longer be able to offer art, music, JROTC, or summer school. I am sure this comes as a shock to most of you. We apologize for the inconvenience but we will be holding a meeting about all of this today after school at 4:00 pm. Please keep all questions, comments and concerns until the meeting so that we can discuss them. Thank you Principal Stewart. Mrs. Gardner: With a confused and devastated look on her face. Im confused so do we not get as much money or something? Whats going on? Mrs. Badertscher: Well I would guess all of this is coming from some type of budget cut. There are a lot of schools around that have to cut budget. Im not sure how much money will be cut from us but I read online that Calhoun County, in Georgia, who are about equally as poor as we are, typically receive a grant each year of about $150,000, which is a lot, and that is being cut by 50%. But then again, I saw that Gwinnett County, who is right down the road from them, receives about $43 million, and theres isnt being cut any. The amount of Gwinnets alone could handle Calhouns school budget for six or seven years. (Badertscher) Which seems a little crazy to me Mr. Biddle: Finally paying attention to conversation after hearing Mrs. Badertschers sad story. Thats pretty sad. Im just really hoping that we get a good amount back this

Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013 year to work with. Did yall know that nearly half of the funding for public schools in the United States is provided through local taxes? (Biddle) Mrs. APA: Deciding after listening and squinting her eyebrows looking confused to join in. I have always heard something about it coming from the local property taxes. Coming from a poor community, I wonder if the superintendent and school budget distributors take into account the link between poverty and things like high-school drop out rates? Mrs. Gardner: With a confused look. A strong link between poverty and high school drop out rates? What are you saying? Mrs. APA: Well as of 2009, students from low-income families dropped out of high school five times more than students of high-income families in. I like to keep up on my statistics (APA 2) Mr. Grubb and Mr. Bush are not paying attention to what anyone is saying, carrying on playing online scrabble against each other. Then suddenly Mr. Grubb falls out of his chair after hearing Mrs. APA. Now everyone at the conference table is laughing hysterically including himself. Mrs. Gardner: Oh my heavens! Are you okay? Does anything hurt? Do we need to call EMS? Mr. Grubb: Barely able to talk due to laughing hysterically. No, no Im fine... nothings hurt but my pride! Now righting himself back in his chair to pay attention. Im just taken back a little by what you said Mrs. APA. I cant believe that sometimes I dont think the principal and board take things like that into consideration. Especially after I didnt get a reply to sending about 46 emails on how devoting a higher proportion of expenditures to instructional purposes has several positive effects, particularly a reduced

Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013 likelihood that students will be in the general track, teachers greater sense of control, increases in teacher salaries, and fewer negative events in schools like drugs alcohol and fighting. (Grubb) Mr. Bush: Putting his phone away after hearing how serious Mr. Grubb was being. Dude! Im telling you guys all that matters are our test scores. We have some of the lowest test scores in the county and cant seem to get them any higher. They play a huge factor in the money we get. If we can just meet or exceed our AYP objectives, this year, we will be eligible for State Academic Achievement Awards, which would mean more money for us to have to do what we want with! (Bush) Mrs. Gardner: That would be so nice to be able to use the money for things we like rather than ordinary class stuff Mrs. APA: That may be harder than it sounds though Mr. Bush These students have been in the same county getting the same type of education until now. I read last week that recipients of high quality early childhood education exhibit higher levels of academic achievement, which creates fewer special education services needed for schools. (APA 3) Mr. Bush: Yeah, I would just like for all of our children to have the same opportunity as other students from other counties. Oh and not for a single child to be left behind. Mr. Biddle: Isnt that everyones dream Mr. Bush? These better funded schools you guys are talking about attract teachers with higher levels of education, more experience, and higher scores on competency tests; those teachers, in turn, seem to generate better achievement scores among students. We arent exactly the teachers Im talking about either. We dont have much to work with here money is slim and we do the best we can with what we have, but there has to be some give in this system.

Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013 Mrs. Gardner: Here come the principals guys we can finish this conversation later. The school principal and a couple of other board members walk into the room to greet the teachers. Principal Stewart stands at the front of the room at the podium getting ready to begin the meeting, while the other board members take a seat with the rest of the teachers. Principal Stewart takes notice to Mrs. Badertscher as she is still staring at her phone reading the email with a shocked and sad expression as she is almost in complete disbelief of the email. Principal Stewart: Good afternoon everyone. Everyone rights themselves to pay attention to what Principal Stewart has to say. Thank you for coming to our monthly meeting. I really appreciate all of your time and what I have seen going on despite the email that was sent out today regarding funding. We will begin the meeting by addressing the elephant in the room. Does anyone have any questions before I explain exactly what is going to happen? Mrs. Gardner: Is this really going into effect next year? Are we really going to have to cut all of these programs that we already offer? Principal Stewart: Unfortunately yes Mrs. Gardner, it is going into effect next year and we are cutting all of the programs I listed and maybe even more. We just dont have any funds we can use towards programs of that nature. We need to focus more on our students test scores in math and science if we want to be able to use the money towards programs like these. Mr. Bush: Whispering to Mr. Biddle. I told you thats what we needed to do We cant use funds for things we want to unless we get higher test scores. Once we meet state

Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013 standards, we dont have to use our funds for certain math and English programs. I read all about that in a book once. (Bush) Mr. Grubb: We have been teaching these kids for years in these subjects trying every way possible to get them to learn the stuff to pass these state tests. The best way to fix the problem is give us more money not cut our spending. Higher spending reduces the likelihood of conventional teaching in math and science. You said we have really low test scores in those areas. (Grubb) Principal Stewart: Well Mr. Grubb, that is certainly something you could take to the superintendent, but unfortunately I dont make the rules so I cant really do much but talk to the county board and try to figure out a solution. Mrs. Gardner: Well is there anything at all we can do about this? Mr. Biddle: Unfortunately, I dont think there is. Because we live in a very rural area there isnt much money coming in from income taxes. Sources for school funding comes from federal, state and local sources, but the big differences are caused from local property taxes. (Biddle 2) After hearing what Mr. Biddle just said Mrs. Gardner gets up and throws a chair out of the glass window. The members of the meeting are staring in disbelief as she screams Mrs. Gardner: This isnt fair! I hate North Carolina! Why cant we all just have the same amount of money? Our students dont deserve to be treated like this. They only want to better themselves, but are stuck in this never-ending circle of poverty! Now beginning to cry. How is this giving equal opportunity at all?

Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 April 2, 2013 Principal Stewart: Mrs. Gardner, what are you doing? Get out of here right now! Have you lost your mind? This meeting is over everyone go home and Mrs. Gardner youre fired! All of the teachers leave the room. Mrs. Gardner is made by Principal Stewart to clean up her mess and go home. She doesnt return to the school ever again because of a new crime on her record, destruction of property.