Description
Book SynopsisAn undetected thief lurks in America's classrooms: funding for public education. Dynamic instruction, robust learning, and student futures are stolen when funding for public education is inadequate and inequitable. The devastating impact of this thievery is examined throughout this book. Student engagement with the potential and promise of traditional public education is stolen by funding formulas crafted by state legislatures. Theft in the classroom results when these funding schemes misdirect and disconnect the resources required to educate all US students. Called upon to deal with an ever-changing cascade of mandates, standards, legislation, and counterproductive testing marathons, but provided with funding so inadequate that instruction is often little better than anemic test prep, public educators in pursuit of the common good are robbed by insufficient funding. Although funding for public education is a topic unlikely to command frequent public discussion, no topic is more con
Trade Review
Finally, a review of the inconsistencies and unequal treatment of school systems when it comes to school funding. If US public education is truly a priority, why does the success of America’s students rely more on their zip code than any other factor? The authors are experienced and knowledgeable educators who can speak first-hand to the inequalities and inconsistencies that prevent school improvement initiatives and student success.
-- Jim Freeland, EdD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Purdue University
A must-read for educational leadership at all levels. Swensson, Lehman, and Ellis detail both the form and the function of flawed funding formulas, identifying institutionalized inequity as the inevitable outcome. This is an overdue offering!
-- Tracy Dust, Executive Director Emeritus, Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents
The Thief in the Classroom is a primer for those charged with creating and administering public policy regarding the finance of public education and should be required reading for legislators, board members, administrators, and teacher leaders. The straightforward narrative serves to transform a “mysterious concept” into an understandable topic.
-- Kenneth Hull, EdD, retired superintendent
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction
ONE—Dollars and Sense: The Basics of Public School Funding for Educational Programs
TWO—Grab Bag Funding: Promises, Problems, and Prizes
THREE—A Case Study: Weeds in Indiana’s School Funding Field
FOUR—What Does School Funding Pay For?
FIVE—Are We Really Paying for What We Get?
SIX—Public Education Is a Test
SEVEN—The Magic and the Consequences of School Funding
EIGHT—The Thief in the Classroom
NINE—Funding for Public Education: Is There a Bottom Line?
TEN—To Catch a Thief
References
Index
