Chapter 2 Review

                Obviously, our schools need help.  The major thought that keeps coming to mind from chapter two is how students do not receive the same amount of funding per student for their education.   The book discusses how in “white” neighborhoods students get X amount of money, while minorities get less even though they live a few blocks or few miles away.  I might not make friends here, but I am tired of this being a white/minority problem.   Yes, “white” schools get more money because their property taxes are higher.  It is not because they are white that they get more money.  It is because the value of their home is more.  This is 2013, we have a "black" preisident.  I am sure his home in Chicago is in a nice neighborhood and they have nice schools.  I am sure the students in his neighborhood get more funding for their educations than the students who live is what many would call the "ghetto."   We have to stop looking at this a race issues. 

           I own a house in St. George, Utah and every year I get a statement telling me how much of my money goes towards the schools in the county.  Yes, the majority of the people are white, but there are many, many other different races that make up the population.  These people of the community value education.   The people of that community put real value in being able to provide for themselves.  They don’t want to depend on the government.   The schools in this area have beautiful buildings. 

I can see that say you live in South Central, Los Angeles your property taxes are not going to be the same as Beverly Hills.  Though they are only miles apart the schools are going to be funded differently.  So the real question is how do we mandate that the schools get even funding?  When do we stop saying this is not a minority/white person problem and look at the problem as it should be looked at? 

This is a huge problem on Guam.  Every day I drop my children off at school and yes, they do go to a public school and their school is so run down.  They don’t have the resources that other schools have like computers, ELMOS and electronic white boards.  I am always asking myself what can be done to improve the schools.   Again, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier…property taxes.  Are we helping our children enough on our own island?

Giving our children across the country a quality education is hard!  I believe there are many things that this country needs to look at and face.  And sometimes I feel we don’t really want to change how things are done.  For example, weeding out the teachers who don’t do their jobs, but get to keep a pay check because they have been in the system for so long.  When talking about money everyone seems to have an opinion, especially when it deals with our youth.