Poverty and Education.

            Poverty and education are very much connected and not for the reasons that many people suspect. In poorer areas you may tend to see more broken homes and single mothers working numerous jobs to support their families. Many people tend to think that this can be a cause as to why students suffer in school. There are many stereotypes that exist as to why children do not succeed in poorer areas. Excuses range from there are not two parents to support the children or the parents are absent from the home and don’t care how their child does in school or even that poverty breeds uneducated people. All of these may be true but I do not necessarily believe that is the case.

            Arizona tends to have the lowest per pupil spending per year. This money is added to federal funds and funds collected through property taxes. The most important of the funding in our examination is the property tax. If you live in an impoverished neighborhood the amount collected in property taxes is going to be lower than a middle to upper middle class neighborhood. To help explain this we can have district X and district Y both are in the State of Arizona and both receive the standard amount Arizona pays per pupil of $5000. They have the same number of students and receive the same amount of federal dollars. District X is in an older area with home values averaging $50,000 per single family home while district Y has home values averaging $200,000. They both collect 5% of the value of the home per year to help pay for the school district. That means that for every home in district X $2,500 is collected in taxes while $10,000 is collected for every home in district Y. These examples show how a poor area can collect less in revenue for their educational system. Property taxes are an important revenue generator for most school districts. When areas become rundown education suffers because of the decrease in home values.

            Solutions to this problem are not necessarily in government. More money does not always mean better schools. Allowing students the option to take part in private schooling would really measure the lengths of parental interest in their students. Many people have talked about a voucher system that would allow parents to take the amount spent per student and invest that into tuition prices at a private school. This would allow students in an impoverished neighborhood to attend a private school that has a more credible curriculum. The down side to this program is if you live in an impoverished area you might not have access to a highly ranked private school that is across town. This system has its flaws but it helps remove students from failing public schools.