Dear Future President,

I am writing this letter to you regarding America’s educational system. As I finish out my high school career, I think I have insight on how the education system could benefit from a few changes.

The public K-12 education system needs funding in order to successfully produce the outcomes the government wants. According to Governing.com, “funding was by far the most pegged problem with 35 percent of those polled saying it is the biggest obstacle for public schools in their community” (www.governing.com). Therefore, during your term, I ask that you encourage the federal government to give more attention to this national problem by giving more funds to schools. The U.S. Department of Education states that, “...the responsibility for K-12 education rests with the states under the Constitution” (www2.ed.gov). This is a major problem because it gives each state’s legislature the power to determine educational funding. Depending on the type of politicians in the state legislature , funding for schools could range from just getting by to having a surplus of cash. The nation needs funding consistency in its education system and without federal funding, that consistency will not happen.

An increase in educational funding would allow districts to offer higher salaries to teachers. This would bring better teachers into the classrooms. Many aspiring teachers are pursuing other higher paid professions because they can not provide for their families on teacher salaries. If you increased educational funding, school districts would have the resources to hire more teachers. This would decrease class size and provide the optimal student to teacher ratios. In a study conducted by Kirabo Jackson and Claudia Persico of Northwestern University and Rucker Johnson of the University of California, Berkeley, researchers found, “that the increased funding had the greatest effect if it was used to raise teachers' salaries, reduce class sizes or lengthen the school year” (www.washingtonpost.com). Increased funding is also known to increase graduation rates as illustrated by New York Times. “For low-income students who spent all 12 years of school in districts that increased their spending by 20 percent as a result of court-ordered reforms, graduation rates rose by 23 percentage points” (www.nytimes.com).

As you can see, funding in the education system is needed to benefit students. I truly hope you take my letter into consideration as you bring issues to Congress.

Thank you,

Savana