Education
The Dept. of Education’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 put forth by the Biden Administration is 90 billion dollars. Most of this money is used to fix the short comings of our education system, meaning trying to help students that have fallen behind. The poorer the neighborhood, the lower the reading and math scores are. How does the government deal with this? Specialized programs. The number of different programs is staggering and one can only guess at the number of administrators and the cost to manage these programs. The end result? The money isn’t spent in the areas that need it most so test scores drop and the government creates more programs and hire more administrators.
The following is taken from the 2024 budget proposal; “The fiscal year 2024 Budget Request continues to make significant investments to address longstanding inequities that students and educators confront every day in under-resourced schools and institutions of higher education (institutions) across the Nation, particularly in our communities with concentrated poverty and predominantly serving students of color.”
Let’s take a look at this statement and see how it applies in South Carolina.
Based on Dept. of Education’s Title 1 funding in 2017, here are two examples of how the government is “serving students of color”:
Vermont’s black population is 1.34%, they received $3589.21 per student.
South Carolina’s black population is 24.79%, they received $1427.60 per student, 251% less!
Based on Dept. of Education’s Title 1 funding in 2017, here are two examples of how the government is “serving concentrated poverty”:
Massachusetts receives $1929.41 per student.
South Carolina receives $1427.60 per student.
In their budget proposal they claim they want to help the poor and people of color but instead more money goes to those less in need. Massachusetts school systems are the some of the highest rated in the country while South Carolina’s are some of the lowest rated. Why is the funding backwards? Programs! To receive the funding, you need to be able to navigate the massive array of programs and request grants for each program. In a nut shell, rich states can afford more administrators who can request more grants and end up with more money.
Here is my idea, shut down the Dept. of Education and it’s bureaucracy. Take the $90 billion and divide it up by state based on median income and population. Using this formula South Carolina students would receive the 9th highest funding per student and Massachusetts would receive the 49th highest amount. South Carolina would now have the money to build better schools and hire better teachers.
While we’re at it, let’s stop sending federal funding to The Harvard Corporation. (formerly known as Harvard University) and other private colleges. In 2021 the federal government gave Harvard $625 million even though Harvard has an endowment of over 50 billion dollars. In 2023 Harvard made a disappointing 2.9% on its endowment which equals $1.45 billion dollars. Why are my tax dollars being sent to Harvard?
In conclusion, the burden of educating our children K-12 is on our local communities and higher education is handled at the state and county levels. Let’s put the money where it is needed and help the neediest students.