Research Position Paper. Can the Federal Government be blamed for lack of Access to quality Education at the Local Level

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Can the Federal Government be blamed for lack of Access to quality Education at the Local Level
For decades education is known to be the key to success in the future, education has been lauded as the key to unlock the American dream, but many children more so from low-income families and minority population find it difficult to access high-quality education due to under-funding and under-resourced schools. Gross funding inequities have long existed, schools with the greatest needs receiving the fewest resources (Dale 128).
In the education sector, the state and federal government play important roles in funding education, although the federal government leads the way, most of the responsibilities lie with both the state and local authorities. The American education system is controlled by the local and state, the federal government acting as an overseer. A substantial amount comes from the state and the local authorities. Educators tend to blame the Federal government for implementing many policies terming policies as the biggest challenge of ensuring access to quality education at the local levels.
School districts that serve a huge population of children from low-income backgrounds feel short changed when it comes to access to high-quality education for all. School districts receive limited funding that affects its advance course offerings, most of its early education programs. All these are all linked to the amount of funding allocated. For example, in elementary and secondary schools, 90 percent of funds come from non-federal sources (Houck, and DeBray 33).
Educators agree that low –income students need extra support and extra resources to succeed in their studies, however, they blame the federal government for not doing enough to ensure access to quality education at the local level. It is true that many high poverty schools receive less funding from the state and local authorities as compared to wealthy schools (Baker and Preston 159). More than 40 percent of the school receiving federal Title 1 funding to cater for disadvantaged populations, these schools spends less on other school-related expenses as compared to schools that do not receive the federal funding (Baker and Preston 164).
In half of the states in the US, poor school districts have limited funds to cater for the varied needs of its ever increasing student population. In the US, school districts having the highest rates of poverty are given $ 1,000 less per student (Dale 136). In an attempt to make their financial system equitable , school districts that serve more students have adopted different school funding formulas .For example, in Illinois one of the state with the biggest funding gap depends entirely on property taxes, hence the inequitable funding cycle has resulted in underfunding of education (Baker and Preston 161).
The funding gaps among the states vary, states like Missouri, New York, Alabama and Illinois are ranked as the worst states that are underfunded .In these states, district schools receive 22 percent less in terms of state and local funding(Dale 137). Although scholars have blamed the federal government for not adequately funding education at the local lev...