In my 14 years of existence, I spent ten years of it as a student in public schools. Like millions of other students in the US, I spend the most time at school, if not at home. When I look back, there were things that I noticed which disappointed me. Sitting on a chair with a broken backrest and seeing my Earth Science teacher at his table that was balancing on that one leg some kid broke, the asphalt track surrounded by dead grass, and fights broke out almost every day.

Near the end of my final year there in 2022, my school experienced a budget cut. It laid off many teachers, my favorite ones included. The student-teacher ratio rose from 13:1 to 17:1. Teachers were worried about classroom sizes rising from an average of 32 students to 40 students.

Underfunding education means taking away good teachers, leaving students with fewer resources which decreases the quality of education. The school starts to deteriorate, making classroom environments uncomfortable and hard to learn in. I witnessed how this strips students of their only affordable and available source of activity. Yet, adults wonder why students act up in school. We need to be supported, and those that are supposed to, are put in situations that make it hard for them to be effective teachers.

Now that I am a student at SPA, I see clearly how different my other schools were. Having this comparison, a lack of sufficient funding for schools is a significant contributor to the quality of education in public schools.

At the state level, Minnesota does well at funding public schools. Most of our revenue comes from taxes, licenses, fees, and federal grants. For the fiscal year of 2022-23, Minnesota has around $113,700 million, and $24,500 goes toward K-12 education, the second biggest spending area to Heath and Human Services. The 2021 State Legislature set the amount spent on one student for the 2022-23 school year at $6,863. In total, Minnesota spends about $14,000 per student, which is good, considering the average in America is around $12,000 per student.

Yet it’s not enough, far from enough. If it was enough, why is there still broken furniture in the Snaps my friends send me? Why are they telling me about the “daily fight” like it’s celebrity gossip?

Look at the national level, where the U.S.’s FY 2023 has $2.1 trillion to spend. The government plans to put only 2.5% of it towards education for the first quarter, which includes training, employment, and social services. Education is the 8th largest spending area, and the top spending is 18.3% towards National Defence. The Pew Research Center conducted a study that showed that 57% of Americans think improving education should be a number one priority, not 8th like it is now. Without overlooking other needs such as health care and national defense, does this mean education is not foundational to our country when it should be?

Since local taxes mostly fund schools, districts with high poverty rates get less funding per student. The more wealth one neighborhood has, the more money that area has to fund its school. It also doesn’t help that just over 50% of students who attend public schools in America are from low-income households, most of whom are students of color. I fall into these categories, and so do most kids at that school.

So, we have funding that is distributed equally from the government, but it has to be distributed equitably. Areas that have many minority people and more poverty need more funding. When my previous school received more money, they built a new turf field and a nice track to replace the asphalt one. That same year, the track coach told me the team had doubled in numbers. This shows that with more funding, schools can create better facilities and attract students to join more activities, leading to a healthier school environment.