School Financing - Essay Example

Karl Marks is very clear that life is not established by perception but perception is determined by life. This is a very important theory that can show the correlation between quality of education and financing. According to Karl life means a material activity that we lead daily and consciousness entirely depends on human activity (Castles & Wustenberg, 1979). It, therefore, means that we organize our institutions on the basis of our opinion and thought on the things we produced in the World. The Economic structure of the society is a very important aspect of everything we do. This is because our institutions, ideas, and culture of a given society depend on economic structure. For that matter, political system, education system, and even legal system are therefore determined by the financial structure of the people and is a manifest fiscal base of the society. Marx affirms that financial condition of an institution affects its functionality. In case of the education system which is part of the superstructure is a manifestation of the financial base and is required to offer quality education. It does not mean that education is used by the ruling class to suppress other people but the quality of education depends on its infrastructure.

According to Karl Marx, education system needs to be created on the basis of social class. Meaning that children from financially stable backgrounds go to school with good infrastructure and best performing schools while those coming from low-income families get the low standard of education (Marx, 1976). Furthermore, Marxists believe that money determines the quality of education one gets and this is not recognized by most people because education institutions multiply an allegory of meritocracy that there is equal opportunity for all students in schools. Therefore the failure of students is a reflection of their laziness or their own making. For that matter, there should be free for people to take their children in schools of their choice depending on their economic class and income group.

According to Adam Smith, it is important for all public schools to use rules governing the free market economy. It, therefore, means that public education system should compete directly with private school the system. In the contrary, conservative theorists assert that all the working class who pay taxes and decides to take their children to private schools ought to have a tax subsidy or be able to receive a voucher from the Government to help them finance the education of their children in private schools of their choice. It is important when the voucher is paid directly to the private school instead of making the payment in the public school as this will be able to create competition between private school and public schools. This is because the funding of one kind of school depends on the other kind (Allman, 2001). Following the rule of the free market economy will create equal opportunity for both for children coming from working class and the rest of the population. It will improve the entire education system due to education bureaucracy where public schools are financed by taxpayers but their children are learning in private schools.

The Government has a key role in ensuring that all the students have equal opportunities in schools. The Government should also support the education of all children regardless of class through allowing the richer minority to support local schools through the tax they pay. Without this, the society will face the problem of not being able to educate most of the children if the Government does not take stern action to solve education problem which has been therefore from the 18th century (Castles & Wustenberg, 1979). Ensuring that education system follows the rule of free market economy relieve the Government from the financial burden it offers to public schools in the expense of low-quality education and constant fight between the Government and trade unions.

Based on my analysis, the opinion of Adam Smith is more likely to win an election to the local school in my home district because the majority of the people have low income group and would require their children to get good education background. Allowing education system to follow the rules of free market where the voucher is used will create equal opportunity for all the students because the schools will be managed and controlled by those who are interested in the children but not civil servants. The cost of education will also not be as high as the form of education described by Karl Marx where people are free to take their children to schools which they can afford. It therefore means that children from poor background will get low quality of education because their parents cannot afford schools with good infrastructure or students cannot learn in best performing schools.

References

Castles, S. & Wustenberg, W. (1979) The Education of the Future: an introduction to the theory and practice of socialist education. London: Pluto Press

Allman, P. (2001) Critical Education against Global Capitalism: Karl Marx and revolutionary critical education. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.

Marx, K. (1976) Theses on Feuerbach, addendum to The German Ideology, pp. 615-617. Moscow: Progress. (Original work published 1845.)