Would Federal School Subsidies Bring Equality?

Even if there is no demonstrated immediate financial crisis in the public schools, the advocates of the federal school-aid bills argue, still federal subsidies are needed to create equality of opportunity schools of the several states. But I think that the bills now before Congress would accomplish no such end.

It is popular in NEA circles to lament the fancied plight of children in the schools of Mississippi or Arkansas. Now I doubt very much whether the average pupil in those states is more badly schooled than the average pupil in the schools of New York City; but let that pass. It is true enough that certain Southern states spend less per capita, conspicuously, than do Northern states—though school costs are lower in various ways south of the Mason-Dixon line, one ought not to forget. But President Eisenhower’s White House Conference on Education concluded, among many other things, that any state can afford a decent educational system, if that state’s citizens desire such.

RK

About the Author

Russell Kirk

Featured Tags

Even if there is no demonstrated immediate financial crisis in the public schools, the advocates of the federal school-aid bills argue, still federal subsidies are needed to create equality of opportunity schools of the several states. But I think that the bills now before Congress would accomplish no such end.

It is popular in NEA circles to lament the fancied plight of children in the schools of Mississippi or Arkansas. Now I doubt very much whether the average pupil in those states is more badly schooled than the average pupil in the schools of New York City; but let that pass. It is true enough that certain Southern states spend less per capita, conspicuously, than do Northern states—though school costs are lower in various ways south of the Mason-Dixon line, one ought not to forget. But President Eisenhower’s White House Conference on Education concluded, among many other things, that any state can afford a decent educational system, if that state’s citizens desire such.