Republicans & Teachers Unions Are Blocking Obama's Plan To Give More Funding To Poor Public Schools

President Barack Obama is working on increasing funding for poor public schools. Some groups, however, are bent on preventing him to do so.

The Obama administration's plan to boost funds for poor public schools is supported by civil rights groups and organizations including the NAACP, the Children's Defense Fund and the National Council of La Raza, the New York Magazine reported. The president's proposal aims to require school districts to use Title I funds of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA, to aid the country's poorest schools instead of the rich ones.

Groups Opposing Obama

Obama's plan didn't gain the approval of everyone. Lamar Alexander, the Republican chairman for the Senate Education Committee, is against the proposal. Two influential teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, have also signed a letter in support of Alexander's stance.

The construction of teachers' contracts contributes to the funding inequality between poor and rich schools. The federal government meddling on how districts spend money will mess up the structure of those contracts, the New York Times wrote. Quite expectedly, teachers unions wouldn't want the federal government to interfere with local affairs and the arrangements they have already implemented in the past.

Teacher-Tenure

Teachers in the U.S. are paid based on years served instead on the efficiency of their teaching. This practice makes it difficult to replace ineffective teachers, and requires layoffs to rely on a last-in-first-out situation.

The arrangements, however, have the tendency to exclude poor and minority students from getting competitive education. The teacher-tenure rules tend to attract teachers to work in rich schools. As a result, poor schools mostly have ineffective and badly compensated teachers.

Funds for U.S. schools come from three sources: 45 percent local money, 45 percent from the state and 10 percent from federal, the NPR listed. Georgetown University scholar Marguerite Roza said several districts spend a third less per student in poor schools.

Texas Funding

Texas is one of the states in the U.S. that struggle with school funding. The state's legislature slashed almost $5.5 billion in school funding in 2011, with a district judge in 2014 ruling the state's system as unconstitutional, inefficient, inequitable and underfunded, Chron reported.

James Crow, the executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards, didn't agree that the Texas school finance system is unconstitutional, but he acknowledged that the funding system in the state is broken, Your Houston News wrote. Crow said establishing an appropriate school finance system will be complex and it requires leadership.