Op-Ed article -- "Accountability in Schools""

In an op-ed article from the New York Times entitled “Accountability in Schools,” the author discusses the problems of education dollars not being spent the way in which they there were intended in high-poverty school districts, and how the Obama Administration plans to remedy the problem. The new stimulus package provides an additional $13 billion boost to Title I of the package— the federal program that was designed to provide additional spending for students attending schools in poor areas, and who are thus disadvantaged when compared to the general student public.

Under the guidelines set forth by the new administration’s Department of Education, all fifty states are now required to provide clearer and more precise accounts of how they are spending their education dollars. Title I was designed to provide additional educational spending in areas of low income. However, state and local governments have often dodged their duty of providing this extra aid to high-poverty schools, and instead have spent the money to fill in the gaps of their own general budgets.

What the author believes is even worse than this unmoral act, is the fact that many school districts use the additional aid of the Title I money to increase spending at wealthy and affluent schools to increase their political pull, as well as appearance. These shady districts cover up their foul play by writing their financial accounts of how the money was spent in confusing and unclear manners—an action which the Obama Administration is now trying to end. It is now the duty of Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, to set the record straight in each of the fifty states and make sure they understand what is meant by the new guidelines of clear financial account reports, and will have each state report its “per-pupil expenditures” for each and every one of its schools.

The author of this article also believes that the most important tactic in ending the dishonest and fraudulent actions of school districts is it to have them follow the new strict standard of educational financial reporting, and make sure that they are no longer allowed to exist with “sloppy bookkeeping that masks teacher salary differences in high poverty versus low poverty schools.” I agree with this notion, as it is very important that the true salary of the teachers is reported, so that children of high-poverty schools are not continually being taught by less qualified teachers, who are thus making lower salaries. It is extremely unfair to the poorer students, who are victims of incompetent and deceitful school officials taking away their full potential, to have to suffer because their extra aid was dispersed to different outlets by sneaky school officials. It is imperative that untruthful school districts change their ways at once, so that all children will have the same opportunities for a proficient education, and a successful future. I hope that this article will help to shed some light on this callous phenomenon that has been taking place, and that the Obama Administration’s new stimulus package will help to mend the wounds that past actions of untruthful educational monetary reports have caused.