VOA慢速英语--Schools in US Don’t Get Same Funding

Schools in US Don’t Get Same Funding

Education spending in the United States differs from school to school.

In the southern state of Mississippi, a school in Brookhaven spends $6,417 per student. Just 100 kilometers west, Natchez spends nearly $3,000 more.

Shannon Eubanks is a school principal¹, or head of school, in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He told VOA “Our kids don’t have a chance.”

Less money means students in Brookhaven don’t have a music or arts teacher, Eubanks said. Students must share computers and they ride old buses that should have been removed from service years ago.

Eubanks worked hard on a proposal² last year to increase money for every Mississippi public school. But Mississippi voters defeated it.

“We just have to keep trying,” Eubanks said.

Who is paying for the schools?

For six months, National Public Radio (NPR) worked on a detailed³ report about what it calls education’s “money problem.”

It reported that even school districts located near each other get very different amounts of money.

The reason is that districts get money from a number of places, NPR explained. All states give money for schools, but some states give more than others.

Some states give more money to poor school districts than rich districts. The idea is that poorer districts need more help than richer districts. But other states give out money equally to rich and poor districts.

The federal⁴ government has programs to help poor districts, but the effect is limited. The federal government only pays for about 8 percent of Kindergarten-12th grade public school costs.

The largest share comes from local taxes on property. Communities with lots of wealthy people collect more property taxes and, as a result, have more money to spend on schools. The opposite is the case for poor communities.

Funding for education across the U.S.

The U.S. Census⁵ Bureau⁶ reported last year on school spending for the largest U.S. school districts.

In the largest school district, New York City, per student spending is $20,331, the Census Bureau said. That is nearly twice as much as in Los Angeles, California.

In Chicago, Illinois, it is $12,284 per student, $8,725 in Miami, Florida, and $8,295 in Houston, Texas.

Education Week also researched funding levels for all 50 U.S. states. The differences are large.

On average, New York, Alaska, and Wyoming spent more than $17,000 per student in 2013, while California, Oklahoma and Nevada spent about half that amount, Education Week reported.

The average for the U.S. as a whole is about $12,000 per student.

Here is how the small state of Wyoming came to be on the high end of school spending:

The state receives taxes from oil and coal production. In the past, the extra money helped communities with the most production.

That changed in the 1990s, when courts ruled all school districts in Wyoming should share in the oil and coal taxes.

It led to increased money for all Wyoming public schools, said Kari Eakins of Wyoming Department of Education. The biggest change was reducing class size in early grades. The state now requires no more than 16 students per teacher in grades kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Recent cuts in education funding

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities⁷ looks at public spending on services such as education.

It said the big U.S. recession⁸ in 2008 led states to lower spending on education. Falling house prices meant property taxes, which provide the majority of school funding, dropped, too.

The recession is over, but funding for schools remains⁹ below 2008 levels in most states, the center said.

The center said those cuts mean schools will produce fewer “qualified workers” to fill the growing demand for “well educated” workers.

How much money a school gets matters, said Eubanks, the Mississippi principal. His school serves 840 students in a rural¹⁰ community -- from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Eubanks said, “We have a lot of issues well beyond education problems trying to serve poor students in a poor state.” He added the school is not giving them services “available in districts with more money.”

Words in This Story

principal – n. the person in charge of a public school

district – n. an area established by a government for official government business

1 principal   

adj.主要的；n.负责人，校长，资本

参考例句：

• When he saw the principal,he raised his hand in salutation.他看到校长时举手敬礼。
• Their school gave a reception to their new principal.他们学校为新校长举办了一个招待会。

2 proposal   

n.提议，建议；求婚

参考例句：

• I feel that we ought to accept his proposal.我觉得我们应该接受他的建议。
• They could not gain over anyone to support their proposal.他们无法争取到支持他们建议的人。

3 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

4 federal   

adj.联盟的；联邦的；(美国)联邦政府的

参考例句：

• Switzerland is a federal republic.瑞士是一个联邦共和国。
• The schools are screaming for federal aid.那些学校强烈要求联邦政府的援助。

5 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

6 bureau   

n.提供或收集消息的机构；局，司，处；署

参考例句：

• The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.气象局每天报告天气状况。
• The Tourist Bureau arranged everything for our journey to Rome.旅游局已为我们去罗马旅行准备了一切。

7 priorities   

n.先( priority的名词复数 )；优先；优先权；优先考虑的事

参考例句：

• The document provided a revealing insight into the government's priorities. 这份文件使人看出政府的轻重缓急是怎样安排的。
• We must work together to fund only our most important priorities. 我们必须共同努力，只为最重要的项目提供资金。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

8 recession   

n.（工商业的）衷退（期），萧条（期）

参考例句：

• Manufacturing fell sharply under the impact of the recession.受到经济萧条的影响，制造业急剧衰退。
• A rise in interest rates plunged Britain deeper into recession.利率的提高导致英国经济更加萧条。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 rural   

adj.乡下的，田园的，乡村风味的

参考例句：

• He lived a rural life.他过着田园生活。
• We left the city for a rural home.我们离开城市，去农村安家。