New Schools for Quality Education

New Schools for Quality Education

A local issue in the community of Los Angeles is the necessity of building new schools to relieve overcrowded classrooms and to improve the quality of education. The funds that the schools receive from the board of education vary from one district to another. The schools should have more after-school programs to help the parents with their children's education. In addition, the schools should have educational programs to help the parents get involved in their children's education. The children's education should be a priority because they are the future in the community.

The necessity of building new schools in Los Angeles is to relieve overcrowded classrooms and serve a growing student population. According to the New Strategy for Building Better Neighborhoods (NSBN), the new schools should be the centers of neighborhoods and serve as centers of learning. These new facilities must be small community-centered schools that serve as anchors to neighborhoods by providing a range of services. These services can be accessed and utilized by all residents and community stakeholders. To accomplish this mission, NSBN promotes the concept of designing smaller school facilities that can build upon and accommodate existing community land. Also build facilities to save on the time, money, land, and other resources used to duplicate functions elsewhere. Their goal is to create small neighborhood-centered schools, which function as community centers open at night and on weekends by providing other social services such as day care, health clinics, libraries, and recreation space. Also to reduce sprawl development and suburban migration by more efficient and imaginative use of limited urban land (NSBN, 2003).

To improve the quality of education the schools need to have qualified teachers. To meet the needs of today's students, teachers need to be qualified, diverse, and well prepared. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that by the 2005-2006 academic year, all teachers in core subject areas be "highly qualified" according to the definition written into the law. To be deemed highly qualified, teachers must have 1) a bachelor's degree, 2) full state certification or licensure, and 3) proof that they know each subject they teach (National PTA, 2005). To improve the quality of education the government should increase the relevance of education by adjusting learning processes, curriculum content, and school management to take account of the context of learning. The government should invest in books, materials, and equipment to provide stimulating learning environment. Also examine the training, status and remuneration of teachers in order to improve teacher performance and motivation (UNESCO, 2005).

The funds that the schools receive from the board of education vary from one district to another. California's $41 billion education finance system offers schools money through two types of funding streams. Revenue limits, which are state allocated unrestricted per-pupil funds that can be spent at the school district's discretion and categorical funds, that include 100 different programs and have very specific requirements attached to the funding. The funding system is complex and results in unequal funding amounts at the student level. In many cases, the amount of money a school district receives depends on how well informed the school district is. Also depends on the size of its central bureaucracy rather than the needs of individual students. The most significant consequence of California's complex school finance system is that too much revenue is targeted toward administering school programs and budgets rather than raising student achievement. These misdirected resources have had negative consequences for California's most disadvantaged students. On the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress, California's average reading scores for students who were eligible for free and reduced-price lunches were the lowest of any state in the nation, at both fourth and eighth grade. Sixty-seven percent of California's poor fourth-graders scored "below basic" in reading. California should simplify and equalize per-pupil student funding by offering one simple base revenue stream that includes the money allocated for categorical programs and the current revenue limits and distributes the funding through a weighted student formula (Snell, 2004).

According to research, after-school programs improve the attendance and academic performance of participating children. Teachers and parents report that children who participate in after-school programs also develop better social skills and learn how to handle conflicts better. After-school programs also save taxpayers money. Studies indicate that taxpayers save approximately $3 for every dollar spent on after-school programs. These savings are based initially on reduced dropout rates and remedial education costs. Quality after-school programs can protect our children during the after-school hours, when juvenile crime hits its peak. Children who participate in comprehensive programs are less likely to commit crimes and are less likely to engage in sexual activity or use drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. Despite the benefits, few students have access to quality, affordable after-school programs. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, the numbers of out-of-school programs for school-age child care meets as little as 25 percent of the demand in some urban areas. Parents also have trouble locating quality programs if they live in rural areas, have a child in middle school, or have a child with special needs (National PTA, 2005).

The schools should help the parents