Funding of Education

This topic was really interesting for me because of the situation with the school in the town that I live in. I learned a lot from this topic as I never really understood where funding came from before.I knew that there were operating grants that were based on how many students are attending the school but then I did not understand how small rural schools were given enough funding to remain open.  I understand now that rural areas do get more funding from the government because their taxes are not as high as some city areas, but yet they are still at a disadvantage with funding because they have less pupils and therefore "require" less funding [A (Total Amount per Pupil)-B (local tax)=C (amount given by province) concept]. Therefore, roughly 40% of funding is raised locally and 60% is compensated by the government.


The big issue for me with the way funding is set up is the inequality that it creates in education. I grew up in a rural area and I do not think that I did not get as good of an education as students in the city, however, I do think that there is an issue now when some rural schools are getting smaller. If schools do not get enough funding, then they are operating with a wider range of ages of children, and with less teachers. I believe that this creates a definite gap in education because it is doubtful for me that those students are getting the support that they need when there is one teacher per four or five grades. Therefore, I do believe that funding is one of the leading factors determining the quality of education that a student could have.


However, that being said, I would never want to be on the committee that decides how much of the budget goes where. I think that this will always be a big fight because people are passionate about all different things. For example, in our class discussion on reducing a budget, some people were really passionate about keep drama funded through the budget whereas others thought that was the first section to get cut. I don't know how these situations would be handled: what's important, what's sort of important and what is not important at all? How does a committee decide that? The reality is though that cuts are always going to have to be made. Therefore, I feel that this shows the importance of a wide representative board to discuss the budget every year so that funding is not cut where it will have drastic affects on the students.