OPTION B: SEXUAL ORIENTATION IN SCHOOLS

Students in high schools across the United States are beginning to appreciate the benefits of
forming gay/lesbian/bi/transgender/straight alliances. These are groups that share information
and support for all students in dealing with sexuality and sexual identity including sexual
orientation. What is your opinion about these groups? Should high schools provide the facilities
and forum for groups of this nature? Why or why not? If high schools allow gay/lesbian clubs,
should gay/lesbian teachers be allowed to discuss their sexual orientation with their students?

Answer
Students today are more aware of sexuality than how students were 20-30 years ago. It
has gotten to the point where it is ok to be gay, lesbian, bi, etc. and not feel like you have to hide
it and yet some schools still do not teach the different sexuality that is being seen in the world
today. I believe some of that reason is the schools budget system. Every year the state and
government divide budgets to give to schools in the US, and every year schools are
independently having to choose between what to keep in the system and what could go without.
Trying to understand how the discussion for the schools money is processed, the book Schools
That Do Too Much explain that the schools budget is determined by the state and mandate
depending on the communitys traditions, and argued by a complex formula of state aid. The
countrys budget for educational organizations is hurting those who will be our future
generations. Some schools are having to choose from expanding health class to learning
sexuality to extra curriculum classes.
Every school year 47 percent of its budget comes from state and federal aid. The first
fund that is put into use is the State aid it is first divided to the schools with the highest
percentage of child poverty, then comes the use of federal aid, The article from Center on Budget
and policy priorities says that the federal aid is used as a backup of the state aid, and according
to the Washington Law Review The federal aid program roughly sets a budget of $39 billion
towards K-12 education, but also gives a budget of $10 billion to educational jobs which is to
meet the requirements of basic education for schools. With society changing expectations and
understandings of others I feel it is important to include sexuality into the basic education for
all schools.
For each state, there is a member in the National governors association the NGA is an
organization that focuses on funding goals that better the community. Each member will go over
the states priorities and what issues are within state governance and how the best way to solve
the issue to make it equally thought-out. An issue that got the NGAs attention was the
expansion of Medicaid Health-Care program according to Education Week doing the expansion
caused some cuts to be made within the educational system, and in doing so in most recent year,
18 states chose to make budget cuts to the grades K-12. The Education Week reports had a total
of $1.8 million in cuts estimating it about $300 million from each state for financing education.
Reports from Economics Of Education Review shows that some states have tried to make up for
the amount that was lost by increasing the state taxes however numbers show that making that
change it has gotten worse. By 2012, states began to spend around $2.5 billion less on K-12
education, continually counting down. (McNEIL, 2011)
 The decreasing rate of the schools funding put a strain on the school boards. They had to
make certain decisions about the programs they offered by deciding which programs were most
helpful to students and which were more elective to students. The end result for most schools
were to cut out extra curriculum classes, and if that wasnt enough according to Education Week
some schools began to cut the budgets in Special Ed classes. Schools that used to have the most
to offer students are now having to cut their budgets per student. Reports show that more than 35
states are having less money per student in the year 2013 proving that the cuts that are being
made are not in the best interest for the students leaning.
The states budgets are constantly being changed due to the new policies that are being
passed. For example, the new health care is requiring more of the state funds to start, limiting the
budgets for schools. The other source of budget attention is the human services each new policy
is requiring more money from the states then they have, causing them to take the funding from
schools with the grades K-12. The reason for education to have such issues is that the state puts
other priorities ahead of secondary schools, In the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities the US
Department of Education data shows that $2 billion out of $39 billion is available to the schools
in the states. Along with $4 billion out of $10 billion is available to the educational jobs.
The book Schools That Do Too Much shows that schools have been trying to make up for
the loss of funding by hosting fundraisers and having the teachers and other staff help with new
solutions on how to save money for their school. In California, a High School did just that.
Teachers and students got together and created a fundraiser that they called SOS more clearly
defined as Save Our Schools. They made their arguments and showed why they needed the
budget and how it would affect the students learning. The fundraiser was a success, their
community was giving them donations from left to right, making it possible to keep the programs
that they offered.
Theres not enough money for the schools funding due to the budget cuts that the state
and government make, causing problems with having classes to better educate students about
sexuality and the reality of it. Not promoting sexuality will begin to force society to go
backwards in time. It is important to express to students that how they are feeling is normal and
that they are not alone.

Bibliography
Kralovec, E. (2003). Schools That Do Too Much. In E. Kralovec, Counting Costs:The Trap of
Incremental Budgeting (pp. 47-66). Boston: Beacon Press.
Loeb, S. &. (2004). Federal contributions to high-income school districts: the use of tax
deductions for funding K-12 education. Economics Of Education Review, 23(1), 85.
doi:10.1016/S0272-7757(03)00064-5.
McNEIL, M. (2011). K-12 Budgets Hurting Amid Slack Recovery. Education Week, 30(35), 21.
Oliff, P. &. (2011). New school year brings steep cuts in state funding for schools. Retrieved
from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7.
Stallings, D. C. (2010). WASHINGTON STATE'S DUTY TO FUND K-12 SCHOOLS:
WHERE THE LEGISLATURE WENT WRONG AND WHAT IT SHOULD DO TO
MEET ITS CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION. Washington Law Review, 85(3), 575-
601.