Underfunded Public Education in Los Angeles
A social issue that previously and still present to this day is the quality of public education in Los Angeles. The K-12 education system is important to help students to be successful adults. In California, we are ranked below the national average. In Los Angeles school district, there is a high number of disadvantaged students that do not get the help they need in school.
Research:
Public education is great right? Yes, it is for the most part. In California primarily focusing on Los Angeles city, has been a target for being the not the best funded and resourceful for its students. There are major gaps in funding amongst school districts. The school districts with low economic families suffer the most. According to my findings of how California funds public education, "Just 3 percent of California students attended school in a district that was spending enough money on education, which researchers estimated to be $16,800 per student." (Kristen Taketa, San Diego Union Tribune). In this article, Kristen speaks with Jennifer Imazeki of San Diego State University, who wrote about the project called Getting Down to Facts II. This project shows the real side of California’s education system. In Getting Down to Facts II, is addresses that California needs to enhance the way students can succeed. The funds for underrepresented students, such as Special Education is another issue.
This means that disadvantaged students do not receive the adequate amount of resources for their education. Therefore, the schools in Los Angeles Unified School District has less teachers, overcrowded classrooms, little counselors on site, and less support for special education. There is a need to hire more teachers in Los Angeles Unified School District, but this issue has not been fixed yet. The increase in funding for education is there since California has a high cost of living. The way that California funding k-12 is through parcel tax and student attendance. This type of tax is form of property tax represented in Proposition 13 passed in. The property tax would help fund schools within range of high property. It turns out that not all districts have passed a parcel tax since not everyone wants to be taxed every year. As a result, the funding from parcel taxes are shown to be ineffective for school districts who have struggling students in their schools.
Student attendance is low on average in low-income neighborhoods. The other issue that public schools are facing is new charter schools are taking away students from their local public school. Charter schools receive extra money for every student enrolled and aim to help low-income students and English learners. The other problem which I touched on before is the funding that goes to Special Education. The state and government funding are mandated for special education students. This funding is taking some of the funding for students with non-disabilities. Charter schools have a low representation of students with disabilities.
On June 4, there was a vote to increase for LAUSD proposed to get $500 million per year parcel tax. The big question is “Will raising taxes improve the district’s education?” The fact that California is low in test scores and performance levels are low compared to other districts in other state brings up concern.
California spent $47.3 billion on its schools
1 in 4 students who have serious attendance problems are enrolled in just 14 school districts, including, as expected, the largest school district in the state – Los Angeles Unified (12.7 percent chronic absenteeism rate) – as well as the relatively small Antelope Valley Union High district (28.1 percent) north of Los Angeles.
Personal:
Public education is important to me since I am a product of LAUSD and MUSD. I started kindergarten of age 5 at Robert Hill Lane Elementary in East Los Angeles, CA. I did well in kindergarten, but when I went into the 1st and 2nd grade. I was having trouble with reading and math. At the time I did not know why I had a problem concentrating on my reading and math. I would not focus on what I was reading at hand. My teachers advised my parents to get tested and create an IEP. In the middle of first grade, I was tested on my reading level. I was placed in Integrated class with students with disabilities and English learning students. This class was for one period and then I would go back to my home room after play time. This took place until the end of 2nd grade. At the time, my parents were separated. My father would help me with my math with flash cards. By this time, the principle and current teachers’ advice my parents to be tested for a disability. My father did not want me to be tested since he did not want me to be tracked or stereotyped. The refusal of my father resulted in transferring to a different district. I moved to Bella Vista Elementary in Montebello, CA. I had extra tutoring in my reading in 3rd and 4th grade. At entering middle school, I had learned that a couple of my friends from my homeroom back at Robert Hill Lane had been held back one grade. As I had reflected on this in the past, I think I could have been held back as well. This instance personally and those around reflects a percentage of the way LAUSD affects student’s education.
Community Concerns
“Public education definitely needs to be changed. The
changes that need to be made is by getting rid of Common Core, which is an education
standard for teaching and testing English and Math for K-12 grades. Students
are not learning as much with Common Core, especially ESL students who fall
behind in learning. The fine and performing arts need to be brought back in the
school district.”
-Linda Ortiz
“In special education, the teachers are giving the
assistants more of the classroom management roles. The current curriculum is
not helping the students in the class I have supervised in the past. We have
low to moderate students with disabilities in our classroom. There is no limit
of number of students in the classroom. I do think the roles need to change in
public education.”
-Nicole Montes
“Public education is funded unfairly. There needs to be
more funding. The government spends more money on military forces, such as the
Prison Industrial Complex and War Industrial Complex. If there was more focus on
schools, then we would have better public education.”
-Claudia Blauser
Sources
Taketa Kristen, California has under-funded schools by $25.6 billion, report says, San Diego Union Tribune, Sep 26, 2018.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-school-research-20180920-story.html
Freedberg Louis, California’s school funding flaws make it difficult for districts to meet teacher demands, EduSource, Feb 19, 2019.
https://edsource.org/2019/californias-school-funding-flaws-make-it-more-difficult-for-districts-to-meet-teacher-demands/608824Video
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