Chelsie Gardner Keaton ENGL 1102-025 March 25,2013

Grubb, W.Norton. The Money Myth School Resources, Outcomes, and Equity. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009. 77-90. Print. In this book Grubb talks about how money does matter in school funding and how the weak effects of this type of funding affects schools as a whole. He talks about this specifically in the chapter about how effective spending per student is. He talks about how increased spending decreases the number of students for each teacher, increases teacher experience in secondary education, and how it allows teachers to have more planning time. All of these things he talks about are pertaining to education and how spending should be used. He then goes on in the chapter talking about devoting higher proportion of expenditures to instructional purposes has several positive effects, one being that students are not on the general track. He talks about all of the things we could use funding for to help students get out of high school. When looking at this chapter in Grubbs book one could surmise that he is a person who believes in the proper use of educational funding. He consistently talks about using the funding proactively to help teachers and students. In the end he shows that he is a supporter of school funding in general and believes that more money could make a more effective school system. He ties things that are so different together. An example being when in the book he discusses how funding in schools can affect a child directly by what teachers get paid. He connects a teachers salary to the time they have planning therefore how prepared they are when teaching each student. He also goes on to connect how these teachers who are less qualified are more likely to take the positions of lower salary schools which in end affects the students education received.

This article helps me see the connections of money and students directly. The way that Grubb relates funding to students gives me a better understanding of what the money schools receive go to. I had no idea that school funding can go to do things like decrease class size making it easier on teachers and giving the classroom a more personal connection with the teacher.

Higher spending increases teacher experience in secondary education , presumably by increasing salaries and reducing turnover (78)

Devoting a higher proportion of expenditures to instructional purposes has several positive effects, particularly a reduced likelihood that students will be in the general track.. (80)

Increased spending also positively affects the amount of teacher planning time and student use of counseling, two resources that cost additional money in obvious ways- for teacher salaries and counselors. (78)

Biddle, Bruce J. "A Research Synthesis/Unequal School Funding in the United States." Beyond Instructional Leadership . 59.8 (2002): 48-59. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. In this article Biddle tells us about school funding, where it comes from, and the challenges of its inequality. He informs us that this inequality is mainly because of local property taxes. He goes on talking about discrepancies in countries and states and the excuses for it. He narrows it down to three, Historical Experiences, Beliefs about the causes of poverty, and flawed studies. Biddle does a great job explaining where funding in the U.S. comes from and why there are such large discrepancies between states, counties, and schools. One reading this article could see that there are in fact discrepancies in educational funding and why they exist. The information that Biddle has given showed us about these differences and how we tolerate them although we shouldnt because they are serious. He tells us that these differences in funding come from rules that we have about income tax and how we have created this inequality because of that. Not everyone has the same annual income and pays the same taxes so a lot of places that are considered lower class living areas are filled with people who dont pay as much resulting in there not being equal amounts of funding for each school. Having knowledge of what Biddle has shown will help me when looking at the how and why factor pertaining to school funding. It doesnt look at the effects as much as my other articles do but it gives me great insight into how these differences occur. He also gives me great examples between states and the way the differences occur there which help me better understand how local funding works as well. I could certainly use this article to show my readers what I am talking about when I say discrepancies between schools and why they occur.

Public school funding in the United States comes from federal, state, and local sources, but because nearly half of those funds come from local property taxes, the system generates large funding differences between wealthy and impoverished communities.

Better-funded school districts can attract teachers with higher levels of education, more experience, and higher scores on competency tests; these teachers, in turn, seem to generate better achievement scores among students.

In addition, one assumes that disadvantaged students would suffer particularly when they attend schools with inadequate funding, and research is beginning to support this assumption.

Badertscher, Nancy. "Poor Schools Still Get the Short End." Biggest Share of equalization Fund Goes to Biggest Systems (17 June 2012): n. pag. Web.

This article was about a school in the rural area of Calhoun County and their struggle with the equalization fund. They were a school that had been receiving money from the fund that was now going to be cut. There were teachers who said that they didnt have any art, music or JROTC programs to offer due to the lack of the money. They talked about not being able to offer summer programs and even made a statement about how they barely had enough to even stay open. In this article Badertscher makes a very strong argument to try and show us how these differences have affected schools and students personally. He takes two schools and compares what money they get and things each of them have or dont have which strongly supports the inequalities he talks about later in the article. When reading this news article one can see the effect that lack of funding has on students and how it directly affects the students programs and opportunities. He shows how these children who attend schools in Calhoun County dont have nearly the same amount of opportunities as other more wealthy schools due to this lack of funding. This is a very personal story that he has shared that is very strong when trying to connect just how these inequalities affect schools. This article will be very useful in applying my statistics that I have found and facts I have found in other sources. In my other sources I have found solid facts about what lack of funding does to students in poverty according to a study or maybe a book about it. What makes this article more personal is that this article is first hand what these people of Calhoun County are facing. They make little money and have to send their students to school where it will more than

likely lead to a never-ending circle of poverty. This is what I am indirectly trying to show through my articles so this will be very helpful in doing so. We dont have art, we dont have music, we dont have JROTC, said Calhoun County Superintendent Danny Ellis. We dont have the luxury of offering summer school. ... We are cutting to the bone and there is no meat. It is literally a situation where you just wonder what can we do to stay open. We need money. We dont have too many jobs in our area. Poverty is high. Its not fair that our kids dont have the same opportunities. Our [tax digest] has declined much faster than the rest of the state, said Rick Cost, chief financial officer for Gwinnett schools. At the same time, weve also been growing faster in student population the double whammy.

S. H.R. 1, 107th Cong. (2001) (enacted). Print. This Bill was a bill passed in 2001 about education and how funding is done. The part I focused on was Increased Accountability. This section talked about how all public schools were going to be challenged by annual reading and mathematic tests. It stated that Schools that meet or exceed these standards would be eligible for State academic achievement awards. This Bill was passed with good intentions of getting our school systems back on track. It was passed so that each school will want to do better to receive these rewards they talk about. They talk about these tests that students must take and get a certain score on in order for the government to fund them more money. There has to be a certain percentage of the students to do good enough on these tests for their school to get money. This article isnt as strong as some of the other articles I have researched and read. However this article shows exactly how America doesnt focus on the inequality of educational funding and the gaps it creates. This article focuses on the standardized testing students are required to take in order to receive additional funding and the ability for schools to use funding as they wish. This again shows the lacking of Americas concern with the inequality of school funding. I plan on using this Bill in my inquiry to show that yes there is money out there but this is the cause of a gap between rich and wealthy schools and poor schools. There are students who have not been taught well or struggle at home and this bill is steadily putting them further behind. When this started there were schools that were already unable to reach these test scores and when they didnt preform as well as they should it cut their funding and when it did that it only put them behind further.

These systems must be based on challenging State standards in reading and mathematics, annual testing for all students in grades 3-8, and annual statewide progress objectives ensuring that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years.

Assessment results and State progress objectives must be broken out by poverty, race, ethnicity, disability and limited English proficiency to ensure that no group is left behind.

Schools that meet or exceed AYP objectives or close achievement gabs will be eligible for State Academic Achievement Awards.

"Facing the School Dropout Dilemma." Facing the School Dropout Dilemma. American Physiological Association, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.

This article was about high-school drop out rates and how closely related it is to things like race and poverty. They talk about different statistics relating to poverty and high school dropouts. They also talk about the link between creating strong ties in school at a young age for poverty stricken children and their success in later grades. The article shows how strongly relative poverty is to success in education and how important this relation between the two are. It talks about how children who are strongly attached at a young age in school and who like school tend to stay and not be retained or held back in their grades. They show how important it is to take all of these things like childrens attachment into account when looking at how funding can affect a student individually. It also talks about how these children of poverty dont feel the need for education because it may not be valued. I plan on using this article by the American Psychological Association to help me in proving how education is important and how important it is at an early age, especially in poor communities. I also would like to relate it in saying that these students could benefit from more things in their education that are fun like art and music to maybe help them stay in school to see that it is more than just boring curriculum.

A strong link exists between poverty and high school dropout rates. Students from lowincome families dropped out of high school five times more than students from highincome families in 2009.

Recipients of high quality early childhood education (i.e., consisting of a holistic, nurturing, consistent, and stimulating curriculum) exhibit lower rates of grade retention, higher levels of academic achievement, fewer special education services, and a stronger commitment to graduate from high school (Stegelin, 2004).

For dropout prevention to be successful for low-income minority students in many of our nation's schools, attention must be paid to social and emotional factors that support academic achievement i.e., academic and school attachment, teacher support, peer values and overall mental health and wellbeing (Becker & Luthar, 2002).