The document discusses findings from a school funding presentation research project. It includes research questions, interviews with participants, survey results, and findings from readings. The interviews found disparities in funding between departments. The surveys showed differences in access to resources between racial groups and those who qualify for free lunch. Readings discussed how school funding is tied to property taxes and zip codes, disadvantaging low-income and minority students. Recommendations included increasing education-specific taxes, improving school food quality and amounts, and spending more on learning resources and grants rather than facilities.

1. School Funding
Presentation

2. Research Questions
● How are people of color affected by poverty at our
school?
● How are white people affected by poverty at our school?
● Is our district distributing funding unevenly?
● What departments get the most/least funding?
● What are the school regulations for funding?

3. Findings from Interviews
● Participant H said the fundraising could include band boosters. The arts
department funding is double that of the band department. Band often
loans money to the Orchestra to replace instruments.
○ “Band has the most funding which involves instruments, concert
bands, jazz band, pep band, marching band and two choirs. Band and
orchestra pieces cost $50 to $100”.
● Participant M said they have $15,000 per year for supplies, and this is not
enough. They are only able to get two to three new computers per year.
Schools spend more money on the building than on learning.
○ “The slight tax increase is only for physical features.”
● Participant O pointed out that the three largest employers in the city of
Urbana take up large amounts of property, bringing to those properties tax
exempt status, due to the fact that two of them are state/city property, and
the other is considered a non-profit organization. Our kindergarteners are
receiving the same per pupil as high schoolers.
● Participant F claims that he gave his own money to provide for his students
because of his department’s $1300/yr budget, but that other teachers do
not have to do this.

4. Total Survey Sample = 382
No Free and Reduced
Lunch
White = 52 students, 13.6%
of Color = 179 students,
45%
Free and Reduced Lunch
White = 106, 27.7%
Of Color = 41, 10.7%
Free and Reduced Lunch Unknown = 11 students,
3.4%

5. Total Survey Sample

6. School Facilities used “Often”

7. Technology and Books

8. Quality of School Supplies

9. Cafeteria Food

10. Survey Findings: Free and Reduced
Lunch & No Class/Race Identified
● White: 96% of people said yes to having access to technology at school. 55% of students feel they take all of their books
home. 29% of students said they do not take all of their books home. 28% of students said they rely on school to provide them
meals.51% said they felt the taste of school food is fair. 40% o students said they feel the quality of school food is fair. 44% of
students said they feel the nutrition of school food is bad. 53% of students said they use the auditorium often. 52% said they use
fieldhouse sometimes. 60% said they use the gym sometimes. 85% said yes to school meals providing for their dietary restrictions.
65% of students who receive school provided meals are satisfied with the amount of food they receive. 40% of students feel like not
having enough food affects the quality of their schoolwork. 58% of students feel the school provides Urbana provides are poor.
● Of Color: 8.5% said that the school supplies provided for UHS students were in bad condition. 13.8% said that the school
supplies were poor. 53.9% said that the school supplies were fair. 25% said that the school supplies were good. 3.3% said that the
school supplies were new. Most students said that they use the gym the most often (51.3). 43.4% of the students said that they
use the field house most often. 44% said that they sometimes use the auditorium. 39.4% said that they never use the auditorium
82% said they felt like they had access to technology. Whereas, 14.4% said no, that they do not have access to technology at
school. 53.3% said that they can bring home school provided books, and 48% disagreed and said they cannot bring home school
provided books. 38% said that the majority of their meals come from school, and 63.8% said no, most of their meals come from
home. 28.2% said the way the food taste is bad. 26% said the taste was poor. 36.8% the taste was fair, and 5.9% said it was good.
No one rated the taste of the food as excellent. In terms quality of the food 26.9% said it was bad, 20.2% said it was poor, 38.1 said
it was fair, and 4.6% said it was good. No one rated the quality of the food as excellent. 26.3% said the nutrition of the food was
bad, 25% said it was poor, 34.8% said it was fair, and 7.2% said it was good, and only 1.9% said it was excellent. 61.1% that the
cafeteria does apply to their dietary restrictions, and 37.5% said that it did not apply to them why the other half said that it did.
54.6% said that the school meals where a good amount while 40.1% said that it was not a good amount. 76.9 said it did not affect
their ability to focus on learning and 24.3% said that it did accept them
● Unclassified: 82% of students feel they have access to technology. 18% of students feel they do not have access to
technology. 50% of students cannot take books home. 9% of students rely on the school for food. 9% of students feel their dietary
restrictions are not accommodated for. 45% of the students aren’t satisfied with the amount of food they’re given. Of this group,
85% feel like it affects the quality of their worK. 45% of the students say the taste and quality of the food is bad, and 36% of them
say the nutrition is less than fair. 55% of students never use the auditorium, 45% of students never use the fieldhouse, 64% of
students use the small gyms often. Nearly 1 in 10 students rely on school to provide their meals.

11. Survey Findings: No Free and
Reduced Lunch
Of Color: 41 students do not qualify for free & reduced lunch. Of those 41 80% feel that they
have the access to technology when needed. 68% said they feel they can textbooks home when
needed. 43% said no do not feel that they can take textbooks home when needed. 80% said that
they do not rely on school provided food. 68% said that the school food provides the right types
of food to for fill his?her dietary restrictions while 31% said they don’t. 65% of people are
satisfied with the amount of food given. 63% of people say that the amount given would affect
the quality of their schoolwork. 65% of these students said that their school provided supplies
are of fair quality. 34% of students say the taste of the food is “fair”. 36% of students say the
quality is “fair”. 43% of students say the nutrition is “fair”. 56% of students SOMETIMES use the
auditorium. 36% of students NEVER use the auditorium. 48% OFTEN use the field house.
41% SOMETIMES use the field house. 60% OFTEN use gyms. 39% SOMETIMES use the
gyms.

12. Student Opinions on diet, amount of food, and
effects on quality of their schoolwork
● Quantity
○ “Not enough food!...This is not enough food to feed a high schooler...
We are not little kids...Not enough food because they think we’re
kindergarteners...Too little food. I have to buy snacks everyday…Not
satisfied. This is the only meal I get all day...I’m growing. I need the
food.”
● Diet
○ “I had to stop being vegetarian because it wasn’t available...More
vegetarians and no meat...I cannot break down certain foods
● Nutrition and Schoolwork
○ “This is my only meal of the day...Uncooked chicken patties and
greasy pizza...can't focus when my stomach sounds like a whale...
taste like crap...same food everyday...too much grease
○ You are hungry and thinking about food rather than work...Sometimes
lunch is so bad I don’t eat as much. Then I’m hungry all day...Hunger
is considered a distraction...Less nutrition affects the brain…Not
receiving good nutrition makes it hard to stay awake.”

13. Findings from Readings
● The Illinois School Textbook Program was supposed to cover the costs of
textbooks for students. It was like an insurance. It was supposed to give
about $40 to each student for textbooks. But one textbook costs $60-$100.
Also, if there are lost or damaged books, students and parents would have
to replace these books. (Woodward, 2009)
● Harper High School is damaged Chicago high school. Their funding
situation is important for us. The State gave Harper a grant for $8.9 million.
They redid the school and the computer labs. The term for this was
turnaround. The downfall of it is that the grant was only for five years. After
five years they go back to the regular funding they receive. They used the
money was reduce class sizes, hire four assistant principals. Harper
students were with low income. These students live in ghettos. When they
walk around they feel cautious about their safety. Some staff members go
out of their way to pick up students who feel unsafe. There’s a sense of
fear. But the teachers try to make their students feel safe.

14. Findings from Readings
Continued
● United We Learn video compares a school that has students with higher
income with a school that has students with lower income. Fenger High
School is located in the urban Chicago area and has disadvantages
regarding to their schools funding. For an example Fenger High only has
funding enough to allow two languages to be taught. The other schools in
comparison is New Trier High School and Glenbrook High School. These
schools are also located in the Chicago but are funded with a stronger
foundation for the students. For an example with the big difference
between the three schools was the averaging scores from the ACT. At
schools like Fenger and Glenbrook the average ACT score is 30-35 in the
first trys, while at Fenger High their average score is 17. This could be
effected because of the funding the schools recieve.
● The zip code has much more to do with school funding. Where you live
depends on how much money a school gets. Illinois ranks last in state
contribution to P-12 funding.
● At Fenger High School the low income families are 98% of students
average act score is 14. They spend $11536 per student spent, and
$67589 is the average teacher salary.

15. Findings from Readings
Continued
● District funding is dependent on property taxes which is dependent on
poverty and structural racism. People who live in a largely color populated
area tend to live in lower income areas, making the quality of the school
and education lower. “They (racism) limit our chances at a quality
education that prepares us for college and beyond.” (Carmen Ortiz, Don’t
Believe The Hype Challenging Deficit Perspectives From The Inside)
“Sufficient level of funding leads to more funding success.” (Whitney
Woodward, illinois Textbook Crunch State Funding Cut Has Schools
Scrambling.)
● A zip code has a much higher effect on a student than what’s
acknowledged. For example, New Trier has a higher tax income- so they
have a better education. “A zip code affects a child’s education.”
(Administrator, unitedwelearnil.org) Also, kids know that it’s the school’s
fault. They had the ability to learn, and a chance to be successful and
because of the taxes- they were denied it. As a student said “It (a low SAT
score) wasn’t really my fault because of the school I went to. It was their
fault.” (Student, unitedwelearnil.org)

16. Findings from Readings
Continued
● United We Learn video
○ Adella Bass received a 13 on her ACT. Teachers told Adella she was
not doing her school work properly when frankly her teachers weren’t
teacher her the right things. “I felt embarrassed, but it’s not really my
fault because of the school i went to.”
○ “In the state of Illinois your zip code has a lot to do with the amount of
funding you get.”
○ Turner Topping of Glenbrook South High School received a 35 on his
ACT and took it once. He was white. Adella Bass of Fenger High
School received a 13. She is Black.She had to take the ACT multiple
times.”
○ “Multicultural Arts High School in Little Village/Great Lawndale spends
$11,536 per student, which is the CPS average. The CPS teacher
average salary is $67, 589. Average ACT score in CPS is 17.3”
● “Poverty shouldn’t limit students access to good education. Being born
poor isn’t the same as being born unable to think or to do good work.
However , there is definitely a relationship between poverty and outcomes
in school” (Coalition for Achievement Now, 2009).

17. UHS Budget Findings
● 25,000 for district supplies.
● 2,000 for rebinding any and all textbooks.
● 1,350,000 contractual food service
● renovations
○ UHS Athletic Complex 2,908,503 (11-12)
○ UHS Commons 148,840 (12-13)
○ UHS Auditorium 1,215,227 (12-13)
● American History teacher GRA
○ 381,477(2010-2011)
○ 202,626(2011-2012)
○ 44,215(2012-2013)
● Of the 70 million dollars we receive for the district 84%
ish goes to salaries.

18. Recommendations
We propose the following recommendations to improve the district funding:
● Increase taxes that specifically are for educational purposes.
● Change the tax funding structure so that there are less inequities.
● Collaborate with Carle Hospital to contribute to school funds because they are one of the
largest employers in Urbana.
We propose the following recommendations for Urbana High School:
● Improve the quality of food, range of types of food, and increase the amount of food
offered to students because students have dietary restrictions, and for some students, this
is the only meal they receive in a day.
● Rather than spending on fancy facilities, spend money on learning. Spend more money
on a range of different kinds of books because students say our books are old, outdated,
and broken.
● Organize and apply for other streams of funding such as grants, community fundraisers
and small-scale fundraisers.
● Fund fuller development of the recommendations proposed by other students in the Social
Justice class such as:
○ put technology in the MEP room
○ reinstate the Outreach Coordinator position
○ apply for the 21st Century Learning Grant
○ purchase resources identified in the Alternative App Appendix to the Common Core
○ build gender neutral bathrooms for transgender students