Issues for Class Discussion

Chapter 1 The Nature and Theory of the Public School

Issues for Class Discussion

Goldin and Katz identify seven virtues of American public schools that are unique among nations. A class discussion should entail a discussion of each of these virtues, and members of the class should be asked to identify aspects of these virtues that have affected them or someone they know.
Various tenets of The Enlightenment lead directly to the founding and creation of public schools. Have the class discuss the founding of public schools and the concept of mass secular education. In this regard, how do the ideas of the public good, light and liberty, public reason, and equality intersect by means of the public school?
Adam Smith, the great economist, explained why neither the parent nor the church could provide adequate education to support and expand the wealth of nations. Are Adam Smith’s observations appropriate for today’s society? A class debate regarding Smith’s views of education may be undertaken.
Discuss how absolutist political control by King and Religion stifled broad-based education for a thousand years, a condition that remains so in some countries today. Can students give examples of nations that still suffer under such debilitating control? Are there examples to be found in the United States? Asia? Europe? South America?
What are the basic attributes or precepts of public common schools? Is the word common important to the concept of public education? How are these precepts implemented in your state? In your school district?

Chapter 2 Fundamental Rights and State School Finance Litigation

Issues for Class Discussion

Discuss the nature of a human right. Should the state be compelled to finance the provisions of human rights? Ask the class to identify a list of human rights. Have the class debate the issues that can evolve from the compulsion of states and nations to fully fund the acquisition of human rights.
Does the social contract require free education as a first principle of human rights? What is the social contract?
Berlin in his Two Concepts of Liberty explains the difference between negative and positive rights. How should these two liberties (or rights) affect government’s funding of public elementary and secondary schools?
Ask each student to select a state and brief the case in which the state supreme court adopted or rejected the constitutional concept of fundamentality of education. Have the students present the rationale of each court in making its judgment regarding fundamentality.

Chapter 3 The System and Public Schools

Issues for Class Discussion

What is the system of each state or nation that drives disadvantage and poverty of people as explained by Yunus? Have the students identify aspects of the cycle of the system that seed poverty or remediate poverty. How do the cycle of factors interact to inhibit social mobility?
Ask the students to speculate as to the effect that child poverty has on student achievement in the United States relative to other developed countries. Does the United States have the fiscal ability to address the problem of child poverty in the United States?
Nations and states have differing spreads of incomes between the haves and have-nots. The United States does not rank well as compared to other OECD countries. Request that the students discuss the possible (or probable) economic and social consequences of inequality within countries.
How and why do nations fail? Ask the class to give examples. Do the same or similar conditions apply to states in the United States? Ask the class to analyze aspects of the conditions and situations in selected states.
Explain the intricate workings of extractive versus inclusive economies.
What government actions could be implemented to enhance redistribution of wealth and income?

Chapter 4 Equality of Opportunity: The Rationale

Issues for Class Discussion

Is equality of educational opportunity a concept that is measurable and achievable? Ask the students to give examples.
Discuss the importance of relevant differences in education funding. Can you identify a list of relevant differences? Irrelevant differences?
Coombs points out that certain societies have built-in features that either enhance or inhibit investment in education – the heavyweight of traditional attitudes, religious customs, prestige, structure, etc. Ask the class to identify such features among nations and continents.

Chapter 5 Education as an Investment in Human Capital

Issues for Class Discussion

Have the class identify some of the social benefits that emanate from education at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels. Which level is most valuable in terms of rates of return?
Explore the many facets of education to the wealth of nations. Why are some nations rich and some poor? Request that the class compare their experiences in other countries and indicate what their perceptions were of education in those countries and the social condition of those cited countries.
Explain why John Stuart Mill did not trust state education. How does the problem of church control play into his view? Are there any parallels that may be discerned in the United States today?
Request that the class elaborate on John Stuart Mill’s views toward the education of women. How they have come to fruition in the developed world? The underdeveloped world? The consequences?

Chapter 6 The Politics of School Finance

Issues for Class Discussion

Ask the class to elaborate on the idea of the public good. What is the economic theory of the common or public good? How does it apply at the state and local level? What are examples? How does the concept of the public good help explain the desirability of taxation and the adequate financing of public schools?
In the view of the class, how important is race to the adequate financing of public schools?
What is the perception of the various class members as to the politics of education? What are the various schools of thought toward public schools in the political arena?
Ask the class to read and study the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Citizens United case. What was the judgment of the court? How could it be detrimental to public schools?
What is the bottom line on the Seattle and Louisville cases as to the politics of race in America?

Chapter 7 Fiscal Capacity and Tax Effort in the Funding of Public Schools

Issues for Class Discussion

Harrison argues that prosperity of societies results from seven basic conditions. What are they? Explain and discuss each. Ask the class to discuss and debate the “world view of capacity to know” as advanced by Harrison. What does he mean? What is the real world view of education?
Discuss the concept of fractionalization of society and its probable effect on tax effort to support public schools. How could the fiscal ramifications of fractionalization affect the ideals associated with diversity in schools and society?
What is the perception of the class as to the voters in your state regarding high fiscal effort to support public schools? How does the United States compare to other countries? If the comparison is not favorable, what is the theory as to the reason?
States in the United States do not have the same fiscal capacity and effort to support public schools. What condition, social and economic, may contribute to the differences? Cite examples in your state and other selected states. What is the class perception regarding tax effort for public schools?

Chapter 8 Taxation For Public Schools

Issues for Class Discussion

As practicing public school professionals, what is the raw impression of the class toward the question of more taxation for public schools? Have school districts, in which the class members are employed, voted to increase tax rates in the recent past? If so, what were the strategies of the school board to gain a positive image of the school program? What fiscal statistics were utilized by proponents and opponents of the tax increase?
As public school employees, what is the class perception to over-taxation of the American citizenry?
Ask the class to compare Adam Smith’s Tax Maxims with Joseph Stiglitz’s Principles of Taxation.
What are the reasons for the unpopularity of the property taxation as explained by John Shannon? Were any of these issues raised in opposition?

Chapter 9 The Federal Role in Financing Education

Issues for Class Discussion

Pose the following questions:

What, in fact, is the national debt?
How does it arise?
How does the federal deficit affect the debt?
Is a national fiscal debt a detriment to economic growth?

Understanding the importance of educational investment, what effect can federal policy, concerning stimulus and austerity, have on public schools and on the development of human capital?
What is the experience of members of the class concerning federal control over education? Is federal control justified and does it in any way impede educational effectiveness? What are the opposing points of view toward the federalism of education?

Chapter 10 Teacher Compensation

Issues for Class Discussion

Should teachers of children of a state and nation be required to have formal pedagogical training? What about Teach for America? Pose this question for a class debate.
What, in the opinion of the class, would be a reasonable standard for the establishment of adequate teacher salaries? What are the thoughts of the class as to the reason that teacher salary costs per student is lower in the United States than in other developed countries? Should teachers’ salaries in a developed nation bear some relationship to the per capita personal income in other developed nations?
In the view of the class, what are the most appropriate criteria for establishing teacher salaries? In a state? In a local school district? What are the criteria utilized by the school districts in which the members of the class are employed?

Chapter 11 Public Funding of Private Schools: Charter Schools and Vouchers

Issues for Class Discussion

How does the performance of charter schools compare to that of public schools? Discuss studies by CREDO and the Lubienskis.
Ask that the students read Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch. How does she view the rise of charter schools in the United States? Request that the students identify the most salient points raised in the book.
What is the school of thought of Carolyn Hoxby and Eric Hanushek toward public schools? How does Hoxby liken the financing of health care with the financing of education? Stage a discussion, or possibly a debate, between the pro-public school and anti-public school positions.
In reviewing the studies of Robert Bifulco and Katrina Bulkley and taking into consideration the studies of Hoxby and Hanushek, what can you conclude regarding charter schools and vouchers? Request that each student prepare a brief one-half page set of conclusions as a basis for class discussion.
If your state has charter schools, ask the students to gather and analyze several charter school contracts and compare the provisions therein to the state charter school statute.
Public funding for clerical schools via vouchers and charter schools are justified, at least partially, on the idea of parental choice and marketism. Efficient markets or perfect competition for education is presumed. In that regard, what does the discussion of asymmetric information convey to the class? What is the understanding of the class as to what Joseph Stiglitz explains as rational markets theory?

Chapter 12 Education Production Functions: Whether Money Matters

Issues for Class Discussion

Identify the critical independent variables that may affect the productivity of a school. As a class project, design a production-function study that would be most valuable in discerning school controlled variables that would result in more efficient educational outputs.
Students in the class should be asked to identify several school districts from which they could identify community environment factors that may possibly have the greatest effect on student achievement.
Request that students in the class identify the principal input variables of the industrial production-function model that are most difficult to apply to the school setting. Which variables would be most efficacious in increasing productivity?

Chapter 13 Analyzing Equity and Adequacy of State School Finance

Issues for Class Discussion

The class should be asked to apply the concepts of allocative equity theory to their own state school funding methodology. Further, the class should be asked to determine which of the four levels would best define their state’s funding system.
The class members should relate John Rawl’s Difference Principle to their own state school finance system. Too, they should determine the aspects of their state system that specifically address the needs of the least advantaged children. How does this principle of funding affect their school district?
As a class project, calculate the Restricted Range and the Federal Range Ratio within their state school financing system.
Discuss with the class the application of the Coefficient of Variation (CV) statistic to their state’s school funding system. Graphically depict the CV for their state.
Ask the students how they would proceed if asked to apply the Verstegen method of determining financial adequacy to your state. What procedures would be required to follow the Verstegen method at the local school district level? What steps should first be taken?

Chapter 14 State School Funding Methods

Issues for Class Discussion

Divide the class into two teams to debate the following:

One team is assigned to the philosophical position that funding public schools is the primary responsibility of the local communities; and the second team is assigned the philosophical position that funding public schools is the primary responsibility of the state. Additionally, each team is responsible for designing a funding system, including the grants, that conforms to their assigned philosophical positions.

Does your state public school financing formula take into account differing program costs based on educational needs of students? What is the method in use by your state? Determine if any graduate students in the school finance class are special education (IDEA) teachers or teachers of disadvantaged students (Title I, ESEA), or other categories of student-need specializations, then request that they determine the exact state school funding mechanisms that apply to elementary and secondary school students in the respective educational need categories.

Chapter 15 Financial Accounting

Issues for Class Discussion

Assign each class member the responsibility to research and discuss the rationale for employment of fiscally independent and dependent governance structures between state and local education agencies. The class discussion should center on the research findings identified by the class members; and each class member should have to defend either fiscal independency or dependency for their state.
Class members should be required to interview a local school finance officer pursuant to the accounting system employed by their local school district. A protocol should be developed by the class for the assigned interview. As a minimum, the finance officer should be queried regarding his/her perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of their accounting systems.

Chapter 16 Financing School Facilities

Issues for Class Discussion

Assign members of the class responsibility to identify and discuss the alternative methods that are available nationwide for acquisition of revenue to fund capital facilities. Contrast how the various states fund capital facilities as compared to your state.
Have class members arrange for interviews with local school superintendents who have recently been involved in funding the construction or renovation of a school facility. A protocol should be developed by the class prior to the implementation of the interviews with the superintendents. As a minimum, the protocol should contain questions regarding the source of funds and the problems encountered during the construction phase.

Chapter 17 School Budget Development and Administration

Issues for Class Discussion

The class will be asked to collect recent budget documents from local school districts. Each document will be reviewed, analyzed, and discussed by the class in accordance with the following:

Budget type, e.g., traditional line-item, PPBES, Zero-Based, etc.;
Similarities and differences; and
Strengths and weaknesses.

Chapter 18 Risk Management, Student Transportation, and School Food Services

Issues for Class Discussion

The class should be asked to determine the types of local school district insurance policies that are required by their state; plus, what are the typical insurance policies that are normally carried by local school districts? Additionally, the class should be asked to determine and discuss the following:

Is there variance in the quality of insurance coverage among local school districts?
Is the variance of insurance coverage a function of the local school districts’ fiscal capacities?

The class should be asked to determine and discuss the state guidelines and requirements for operation of the system of student transportation. Additionally, the class should be asked to interview local school districts’ directors of student transportation. A protocol should be developed by the class and, as a minimum, contain the following:

What are the replacement schedules for school buses?
What are the eligibility guidelines for transporting students?
What are the safety and discipline requirements for those students who are transported?

The class should be asked to research and discuss the historical and legal basis for the provision of school food services. The class should research the structure of school food services that are typically provided by local school districts. Additionally, the class should interview local school districts’ directors of school food services. A protocol should be developed by the class and, as a minimum, include the following:

Identification of the sources of funding for school food services;
Identification of the systems used to provide school food services, including out-source providers, satellite cafeterias, etc.