7A- Testing the Hypothesis- Part 1

Kalie Novosedliak
Professor Pryor
ENT3003- Assignment 7A
5 February 2020


1. Budget cuts in the education Department affect public schools and the availability of resources to students in the US.

2. The opportunity I have identified is the need for public school funding in order to make sure there are adequate resources of technology used for efficient learning, enough teachers and staff, and other factors in order to allow public schools and their students to reach their maximum learning potential.


Who: Public Schools and Students of the United States
What: Many public schools throughout the US have insufficient funds in order to provide adequate learning opportunities for their students.
Why: Budget cuts and a lack of tax payer money dedicated to funding public education.

3.

Testing the Who: Teachers, other faculty and staff members are others who also share this need alongside students.
Testing the What: Not all public schools have this need, but this need specifically pertains to the public schools in poor communities of the US and with inadequate education funding.
Testing the Why: There are numerous different potential reasons a public school in the US may have a lack of funding in order to provide adequate resources to their students and staff. Although government funding and property tax payers contribute a large role in the funding for this problem, some other factors may simply root from the community itself, and the high poverty factors that may influence the public schools' resources in that specific community. These pertain to the social factors that also influence this problem.


4.  Interviews:

A. Eleanor Hatton-
        Eleanor is a UF student athlete from England, and once she got familiar with Gainesville and it as a community, she said one of the first things she noticed is how run down the public elementary, middle, and high schools look compared to England. This is a perfect representation of an outside look into the obvious insufficient funds given to public schools in our own community. Eleanor believes this is a major problem even seeing it in her own community especially because children and younger generations are our future, so it is important we give them enough resources to be inspired to reach their full potential and to encourage the importance and power of education for the better of not only their futures, but for the US as a whole. She believes there is not enough light shed on this problem and that it is important for the US to implement a new and more efficient way of funding public schools, making it one of their top priorities because she knows that it is such a widespread problem throughout the US especially in comparison to England.


B. Kirschtine Balbuena-
        Kirschtine grew up in Gainesville, FL where there is obvious insufficient funding for the elementary, middle, and high schools. Going through these schools she could not stress enough how hard it was for her to simply get time on one of the school computers throughout her childhood because there were so few and they were always occupied by other students. She believes there is a much more efficient way of learning and emphasized the impact it potentially had on her own education as a child and teenager. She said it definitely took a tole on the teachers and their teaching style because they had to revolve their style around the lack of resources available in the class. She definitely believes this problem roots from the financial struggle throughout her community and has been able to first handedly see the effects it has on the education system.

C. Ryan Riccatelli-
      Mr. Ricatelli is a family friend of mine that teaches at my high school, Carlsbad High School. He is really involved with ASB, so he is very in touch with the financial piece that runs through the schools resources. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to go to a high school with plenty of resources for both the students and teachers, however Mr. Ricatelli has also taught at schools in high poverty communities and says there is a "day and night" difference in learning opportunities between the two. As a teacher, Mr. Ricatelli showed me how difficult it is to teach with inadequate resources. For example, in his classes at Carlsbad High School, advanced technology is readily available at all times with a projector in each classroom and Apple Mac computers. He says he implements the use of these resources in his everyday lessons, but at other less fortunate schools, he didn't have these same resources so he would have to try and explain verbally rather than being able to have visuals to aid the learning process. He says that because of this and knowing that many students are visual learners, he saw those particular people struggle more in class ad first handedly was able to see how something like this affected students' ability to learn. He encourages for public schools to host fundraising events throughout a community in order to maximize the amount of funding possible when government funding and property taxes do not meet the necessary standards.


D. Dave Novosedliak-
     I interviewed my dad to get the perspective of a parent and their view on insufficient funding for public schools throughout the US. In San Diego, the public schools are very competitive, so it is commonly found that families will move to a certain area simply so that their kids can attend that school for the resources it has and the opportunity it holds. My dad said that early education is crucial when striving for a successful career, so it's a shame that some students don't even have the opportunities to maximize their learning capabilities especially because this is due to uncontrollable factors. My dad believes this would be a difficult problem to solve, but it is important our society continues to fight for an improved education system in order to even out the learning opportunities throughout the US. He thinks this problem roots from insufficient funding.

E. Celi Guzman-
     Celi Guzman is one of my teammates on the UF swim team. She is Puerto Rican and often visits for swim meets or family. She has seen both education systems in Puerto Rico and the US, and definitely says its much better in the US, although many schools in America are much more crowded and populated with students than in Puerto Rico. She thinks it's very important for students to be able to be provided with adequate resources in order to learn material necessary for life lessons. She believes it goes much farther than the academic side, but also sets students up socially as well. Young children are finding themselves at this time and in the process it's important for them to feel comfortable and confident in themselves, and the learning part of that plays a huge role. Between the US and Puerto Rico, she definitely believes this problem roots from insufficient government funds dedicated to public education and hopes to see a change in the future.

5. These interviews and this opportunity really opened by eyes to how important it is for our communities to push for a better and more efficient education system through financials. Something as important as education should not be such a widespread problem throughout the US and even globally. I am now able to see the perspectives of many different types of people in order to give me a better understanding of the capacity of this problem and the passion behind trying to find a solution. After these interviews, I know a lot more about this opportunity, especially that teachers are especially affected by this problem, not only students. This opportunity affects everyone, not just students, or teachers, but it is a much more widespread problem that parents, students, teachers, and so forth face.