Debate Topic Ryan Gaines

The topic in which I will be arguing is the quality of the environment of education for students that live in a high-income area compared to those that live in lower-income areas. From my observations, the quality of education in facilities, resources, transportation, quality of education, and more is clearly higher quality in areas of higher-income. It is evident that students in lower-income areas are not nearly as developed socially, mentally, and educationally compared to those that are surrounded by all of the resources they could possibly need in high-income areas. I am calling for the funding of schools in both high-income areas and low-income areas to be equal so that children everywhere have an equal chance at a bright future starting from a young age. The reason I am calling for this action is because this funding will go into paying teachers who actually have degrees. Too many teachers in low-income schools do not have teaching degrees. Rather, they either gotten certified through alternative programs or have a degree in something completely different. The funding of low-income schools will not only get qualified teachers teaching in schools, but it will allow for the children in those schools to get a better education. The families in low-income schools and school districts struggle to provide students with the basic needs for school such as backpacks, pencils, folders, notebooks, and lunch. This is why schools have started to implement the free and reduced lunch programs for students who cannot afford the lunch provided. This can result in a problem for schools because if they decide to put money into providing students with lunch, then they will have to either cut back on the salaries of teachers, cut teachers which increases class sizes greatly, or stop providing supplies to students who can’t pay for them. These are issues that are not seen in high-income districts because even though practically all high-income schools and school districts offer a free and reduced lunch, it is utilized by very few students. These high-income schools that usually have many donors, or require a tuition will not have a problem with the cost of things like books or backpacks. This can have a large influence on test scores due to the fact that in low-income schools, the students’ full potential is not being brought out due to the lack of resources and teacher quality. In contrast, the test scores in high-income schools sky rocket past the scores of the lower-income schools because the students have access to all of the resources and quality of teaching to foster their education. The differences that are seen by the result of funding within schools and school districts in high-income areas compared to low-income areas need to be addressed and changed so that every child has an equal opportunity to show their full potential.