In New York, 47 percent of school funding comes from the state, local governments provided another 47 percent the rest comes from the federal government. Different schools received different amounts of this money because of the district they are located in. This means not every school has enough funding for its students.
Even though New York is considered a high spending state when it comes to public schools, it fails to daily fund its public schools. Despite many schools having to address a higher level of needs, they receive the lowest funding. This happens because the state does a poor job in distributing money especially to schools in low-income neighborhoods. Some schools get more money for high achievement but most of these schools are in higher-income neighborhoods and most of them don’t accept Black and Hispanic students. Unequal school funding affects mostly low-income communities because of tax revenue that is used to distribute school funding.
The unfair funding in New York public high schools prevents many low-income students from receiving the same education that other students in different areas have. Schools are left to choose between smaller class sizes, school supplies, additional instructor’s support, and recruiting a higher quality teacher. The cost for school supplies, teachers’ salaries and etc all have increased but New York school is not increasing funding.
Spending more money on education improves learning outcomes especially in low-income communities. When students are given access to a fair education they are given the opportunity to a better future.
