I also asked myself is it fair that we had things that other schools did not have? The answer to my first question was simply location and the answer to my second question was in my opinion no it is not fair. The distribution of funds to public schools is unbalanced and unfair to many students.
I found out the answers to my questions by first visiting a local library where I found two books, Guide to Pennsylvania School Finance and Pennsylvania Public School Finance. What I found was a lot of complicated formulas and ratios that the government uses to decide how much money each school gets. Pennsylvania Public School Finance summed up the formulas by saying this; "Under the Pennsylvania design of financial support for public education, there exists a state commitment to support fifty percent of the cost of instruction from statewide revenue sources. Local revenue sources, through taxes levied locally are expected to support the remaining fifty percent of the cost . . ." (13). .
As I did more research on the topic, I discovered that information was slightly outdated. According to The Pennsylvania Coalition for Public Education, Schools today receive less money from the state government ("Where"). Over a twenty year period the amount of money the state gave has steadily declined from as stated around fifty percent to about thirty five percent ("Where"). This means that the local government must pick up most of the rest of the tab by primarily collecting property taxes ("Where"). I say most because the federal government helps slightly by funding only around six percent (Fisher).
Now I was beginning to understand why my school was much nicer. As I mentioned, I am from the Pocono's. In the Pocono's many people that live in the urban areas of New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, own houses that they come to on the weekends to get away from city life. Many can afford to do this because housing costs are extremely low.
