Paraphrased Paper On US Public Education Funding

Education, Class, and Wages in America

Over the years, the subject of public school funding has been a highly debated topic since, on the one hand; there are those who argue that public school funding throughout the country has been unfair while on the other hand, while there are others who argue that public school funding is fair. Nevertheless, despite the different opinions regarding public school funding, as pointed out by Strauss[1] a new report on school funding indicated that there was unequal public school funding in all states across the United States.

In particular, the report analyzed the funding data ranging from the year 2007 to 2011 and established that; the majority of states have huge declines in funding levels; while there were huge disparities within the states during the years, most of the states have funding systems with regressive funding patterns that assume the need for extra funding in regions that have high poverty rates, majority of states have experienced a decline in overall revenue, and as a result, the financial base from where the schools have been funded has declined, and the extent to which families that are well off opt out of the public education system is indicated by the coverage[2]

On the same perspective, the US education secretary has said that most school systems remain essentially unequal and separate[3]. From such views, it is thus evident that there is a question of whether the distribution of funds to public schools within the US has been ethical or not. This paper focuses on the subject of the distribution of funds and uses Kitchener[4] five moral principles in order to find out whether the distribution of funds to public schools in US is ethical or not. Kitchener five moral principles have, over the years, been considered the cornerstone for ethical guidelines. The five principles comprise autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and fidelity[5].

The professionals of cheapcustomwritingservice.net are experienced and ready to offer cheap custom writing services at all times. If, for some reason, you cannot complete your assignment on time, our experts are always there to help with term papers. Using our online coursework help will get a quality paper written for you.

As far as the aspect of autonomy is concerned, Kitchener explained that it is the aspect that addresses the factor of independence, thus implying that an individual is offered the freedom to choose whatever one wants to do.  On the other hand, as far as the factor of normal efincence is concerned, it entails the concept of not causing harm to others, while beneficence entails the counselor’s role to contribute to the client’s welfare. The justice concept entails administering justice that could entail treating equals and unequal unequally though in proportion to their relevant differences. Finally, fidelity entails the views of loyalty, faithfulness, and fulfilling whatever has been promised. Thus, according to Kitchener, it is vital that whenever an ethical dilemma is been examine, each of the five principles is applied as that is the only way that one will be able to come to a better conclusion.

In view of the distribution of funds to public schools in the US is concerned, it can be noted that the unfair and unequal distribution of the funds implies that the students who are from poor backgrounds are normally not given any autonomy since they have no choice apart from working with whatever is funded by the government. On the other hand, the students who are from backgrounds that well off have the independence to choose the schools that they are going to attend since if they are not happy with the funding, they can look for other alternatives. Thus, while the principle of autonomy is considered, the distribution of funds to public schools in the US can be considered unethical.

Given the principle of nonmaleficence that involves not causing harm to others, it can be noted that the distribution of funds to public schools in the US does cause harm to others, thus implying that the distribution is unethical. Indeed, the unequal unfair distribution of the funds, specifically in the case of those who are from poor backgrounds, implies that some of the students from poor backgrounds are denied access to quality education, and that implies that, to a certain extent, they are harmed. Thus, the distribution of funds to public schools in the US can be termed as unethical.

As far as the principle of beneficence, which means to do good, is concerned, it can be explained that the distribution of funds to the public school is mainly aimed at doing good, implying that it can, from that view, be considered as been ethical. Nevertheless, the fact that the extent to which the distribution of funds does good is questionable implies that the extent of the ethical distribution of funds to public schools is also questionable.

Given the principle of justice, to some extent, it can be explained that the distribution of funds to public schools does not treat all individuals the same, even though the fact that students have different aspects and come from different backgrounds implies that it would be hard to treat all the students the same. In that case, distributing funds to public schools in the US can be considered ethical.

 Finally, given the principle of fidelity, it can be explained that the distribution of funds to public schools in the US is ethical as the distribution to some extent shows the commitment and dedication of the government to ensuring that students from different backgrounds get access to education by distributing funds to various parts of the country.

In conclusions, from the analysis of the subject of the distribution of funds to public schools, it can be explained that the distribution cannot be said to be ethical because it seems to favor some students while at the same time jeopardizing study plans for some students. In that view, it is high time that the involved stakeholders adopt the necessary strategies in order to ensure that the issue is addressed so that all students are given equal chance to access education funding.

Place Order For A High-Quality Assignment Now.

Use Discount Code MINUS15 AND GET15% DISCOUNT.


[1] Strauss, Valerie. America’s school funding problems, state by state. Retrieved from:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/05/americas-school-funding-problems-state-by-state/ 2014.

[2] ibid

[3] Klein, Rebecca. School Funding Inequality Makes Education ‘Separate And Unequal,’ Arne Duncan

Says. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/arne-duncan-school-funding-disparities_n_6864866.html. 2015

[4] Kitchener, K. S.  Intuition, critical evaluation and ethical principles: The foundation for ethical decisions in counseling psychology. Counseling Psychologist, 12(3), 43-55. (1984).

[5] ibid