The following is a proposal that is necessary to adopt in order to aid the struggling Montgomery, Alabama school system. As the proposal will show, increased funding is need to Montgomery public schools in order to improve student achievement in even basic fields.
Problem
In terms of objective statistics, Montgomery, Alabama public schools have not only been shown to be failing, but their standing within the state and the nation is even getting worse. In these regards, the number of badly troubled schools in Montgomery rose from 12 in 2015 to 23 in 2016 (“Time To Get To Work On Montgomery Public Schools”). Such metrics are not only restricted to one barometer, but have consistently been shown in approaches to measuring school achievement in the county. High School ACT scores, which are a measure of student subject-matter achievement, for two 10th grade classes in the city were 0.0, the lowest possible score (“Time To Get To Work On Montgomery Public Schools”). Other metrics indicate that students in only 13 of 50 local public schools were proficient in math and reading. Further, 10 Montgomery schools made the list of 65 failing schools (“Time To Get To Work On Montgomery Public Schools”).
While one can argue that a multitude of factors contribute to the poor condition of these schools, among the undoubted contributors is the limited funding that these schools receive. From a state level, Alabama has frequently underfunded its public schools. However, the main funding issue appears to be linked to the city itself. In these regards, local funding through property taxes significantly lags behind other school districts. For example, Mobile County gains 21.5 to 29.5 million from residents, Jefferson county between 13.6 and 42.3 million, while Montgomery only collects 10 million; this is clearly a disparate figure and undoubtedly contributes to this districts poor scholastic performance compared to these other school districts (“Time To Get To Work On Montgomery Public Schools”).
Even in instances when funding has been allocated to these schools, oftentimes this funding has had difficulty arriving. In 2016, the Alabama Department of Education had designed $1.4 million to be sent to the Montgomery, Alabama school district (Moon). However, rather than these funds making it to the school district they were instead mistakenly sent to the Pike Road School system, which used all of the money (Moon). While the blame was placed on terminated chief financial planner Pamela Wooden, it is indicative of an overriding attitude that funding to the Montgomery school district is not a primary concern.
The impact of such funding challenges are not only exhibited in relation to the Montgomery schools’ failing scores, but can also be witnessed within the classroom environment. In this respect, teachers do not have money to pruchase necessary supplies for students. Even when the classrooms are supplied with textbooks and school materials, the learning curriculum is largely outdated. This results in students being perpetually behind the curb in relation to learning content. Further, the infrastructure at the schools themselves is highly limiting with old and rotting infrastructures preventing students from learning adequately.
Proposed Solution
The proposed solution to address the problems facing Montgomery, Alabama public schools is for these schools to be given increased funding. This funding should occur through the district increasing taxes to Montgomery residents. While increased state and federal funding is also necessary, the present proposal recognizes that such initiatives are out of the scope of the present project. However, through increasing taxes for schools in Montgomery it will be possible to make substantial contributions to this problem.
Counter Arguments
While increasing school funding to Montgomery, Alabama public schools undoubtedly has a number of strong benefits, some people will object to this approach. Perhaps the most prominent objection to increasing funding to these public schools will come from the Federal level. With the recent appointment of Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education, increasing attention and emphasis has been placed on school choice as a means of allowing students the opportunity to improve their educational outcomes. Even in Montgomery, Alabama such an approach has partially been effective through magnet schools such as the Loveless Academic Magnet Program, which has shown improved results compared to traditional public schools in the area (“Time To Get To Work On Montgomery Public Schools”).
Another prominent counter-argument will undoubtedly place blame on the surrounding communities. In this respect, a significant amount of the surrounding communities in Montgomery, Alabama are under the poverty line. Further, according the Montgomery Education Board, 87% of students in Montgomery public schools are minorities and 78% are African Americans (“Time To Get To Work On Montgomery Public Schools”). Such high rates of minorities in these school districts is such that some perspectives may argue that students do not have the proper family and cultural background to achieve high levels of success on traditional scholastic aptitude tests that measure school achievement.
Justification
While some of the counter-arguments raise strong points, after comprehensive consideration it’s clear that the best solution to addressing the scholastic challenges in Montgomery, Alabama is to increase the funding to the public schools. The proposed solution is justified not only on the grounds that Montgomery public schools are failing and need support, but also that empirical research has consistently attested to there being a strong positive correlation between school funding and school achievement. In this respect, the National Bureau of Economic Research conducted a study that examined the impact that increased funding on on 26 school districts compared to 23 school districts that did not implement such funding. The research found strong statistical correlations between improving funding in these school districts and student achievement (Lafortune, Rothstein, and Schanzenbach 5). The National Bureau of Economic Research was not alone in these findings. Another research recognized that, “Schools in high-poverty neighborhoods are more than twice as likely to be among the least-productive school districts” (Layton). With the point being that these school districts oftentimes do not have the same levels of public support as more affluent communities.
Regarding the counter-argument that the problem is the need for increased charter schools, while this may be an appropriate long-term solution, in the short-term the evidence abundantly points to the need for aid to students. In this respect, these students are not struggling with need for more advanced growth, but are failing even in terms of basic math and reading. In this respect, more charter schools are not the solution, but basic aid in core scholastic fundamentals is. In terms of arguments that the the community’s high poverty rate and diverse cultural background makes it unable to compete with other school districts in terms of measures of achievement, such arguments are grounded in false assumptions about the capabilities of minority populations. Further, because poverty may challenge a school district’s ability to achieve higher test should be viewed as a reason to raise funding rather than to reduce it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the present proposal has shown that increasing city funding to Montgomery, Alabama public schools is critical to improving student outcomes for students in these schools. Montgomery public schools have demonstrated some of the lowest achievement in the nation and unless immediate action is taking the student population in this region will experience detrimental long-term problems both to themselves and to society. Ultimately, this issue is highly pressing because of these reasons, but through immediate and concerted action, the threat to these students and the surrounding community can be improved upon. Post, 2017