Current and Ongoing Issues - Education

Contents

1. Economic Justice
2. Environmental Justice
3. Social Justice
4. Education
5. Health
6. Economic Development

Education

One of the basic issues in education is how schools are funded. Reliance on the property tax often means that poor districts have poor schools. The states vary in the measures they have taken to insure equality but overall patterns of inequity remain. Another issue that wreaks havoc on rural and urban Appalachian populations is the committment to large schools and therefore to consolidation of small neighborhood-based schools. Closing of neiughborhood schools breaks the tie between school and community and leads to alienation and high dropout rates. It also does damage to community life by depriving neighborhoods of one of the centers of community life, jobs, and pride.