The No Child Left Behind act was signed by Bush in January of 2002, and by the time the 2003-04 school year had begun, funding coming close to equaling $24 billion was pumped into ournation's public schools. One of the main objectives of the act is to ensure that students attending lower-end public school districts, students from low-income households, and minority students are provided with adequate education. The act requires that schools provide parents with concise and easy-to-read reports that go into detail as to pinpoint problems preventing their children from advancing in their academic proficiency. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) tracks academic standards across the country to record developments and seek out areas that need further improvement in our educational system.
However, how will this act finally put an end to the misuse of funds being sent to public schools? Will the federal government step in to regualte specifically how tax dollars are being spent? Too many instances around the country, budgets go dry because of the missapporpration of funds. Much of the overspending is lost as a result of having too many faculty and administrators on the payroll. In Washington D.C., it was recently discovered that, throughout public schools, there were 640 jobs that the budget couldn't support. Lately, many instances of embezzlement have turned up within public school districts. My own school district recently got slapped with a budget cut, and consequently there are no longer any school-funded field trips, the ordering of new textbooks was postponed, and the budgets of clubs and sports teams were cut if not eliminated altogether. Yet my high school still has six assistant principals, a guidance department of at least 10 couselors and secretaries, and hands out some of the fattest paychecks in the state for teachers. If the government places more money into the hands of administrators, what will prevent them from using large percentages of that funding as an addition to their own salaries.
This new act is a great thing, and its refreshing to see tax dollars being spent on something as important as our country's educational system. But after learning of a study approved by Bill Clinton a few years back that put tax dollars to work studying why prisoners want to escape prison, it is apparent how easy it is to misappropriate funds. If the leader of the U.S. can do it with an entire nation watching, a superintendent can do it with only a small board of fellow administrators over his shoulder. I'm not convinced that measures are being taken to prevent overspending and misspending. Because most education dollars are derived from local sources, I would certainly be interested, as a tax payer, in where my money was going. I would also want a say in where my dollars were being spent. It's the public's money, and they have no control over how much of the school's budget is put towards things such as administration payroll, which does not improve the education of their children one iota. I think that every dollar should be accounted for, and I would go so far as to say that the governement should have a say in what the funding was specifically being spent on.