question: Does everyone in a city pay for the public schools in a city and why aren’t kids allowed to choose the public schools they want to go to?
comment: All the tax money that pays for public schools comes from the district and state, and sometimes even federally. That really depends on the specific school. Schools are allocated money according to their population. More students need more baseline money. Additional money is rewarded to schools that do well. That last bit is what sucks. Poor schools do poorly, then don't get enough funding to do better. It's a vicious cycle that you seem to be caught in yourself. And you *can* choose what school you go to, provided you convince them to let you transfer. The requirements to do that vary greatly beyond districts. Ask a counselor. EDIT: As for the separate but equal question, the US doesn't exactly enforce ethnic neighborhoods, so, they're not really 'separating' them from better schools.
passages: Many schools are owned or funded by states. Private schools operate independently from the government. Private schools usually rely on fees from families whose children attend the school for funding; however, sometimes such schools also receive government support (for example, through School vouchers). Many private schools are affiliated with a particular religion; these are known as parochial schools.
  
  Section::::Ownership and operation.:Starting a school.
  
  The Toronto District School Board is an example of a school board that allows parents to design and propose new schools.
  
  When designing a school, factors that need to be decided include:
   Kalervo Gulson makes the claim that in today's world, particularly in inner-city areas, schools cannot operate in isolation from the communities in which they are located. In these areas, urban change and education policy change greatly influence each other. As part of his doctoral work, Kalervo examined the relationship between education and urban policy changes. His evidence was drawn from two case studies of recently implemented policies - London's 'Excellence in Cities' program and the 'Building the Future' program in inner-city Sydney.
   The Local government allocates education funding from the revenue generated by property tax and other fundraising efforts. Local officials have the ability to influence the rate of change of property taxes that are used to fund local expenditures, including education.
   In Chile, there is an extensive voucher system in which the state pays private and municipal schools directly, based on average attendance (90% of the country students utilize such a system). The result has been a steady increase in the number and recruitment of private schools that show consistently better results in standardized testing than municipal schools. The reduction of students in municipal schools has gone from 78% of all students in 1981, to 57% in 1990, and to less than 50% in 2005.
   Section::::Education in Southeast Michigan.:School funding.
  
  In Michigan, Proposal A was approved in 1994. It drastically changed funding method for public education and led to lower property taxes, reducing inequalities in per-pupil funding across local districts.
   Section::::History of mayoral control of schools.
   "Public schools played a big role in holding our nation together. They brought together children of different races, languages, religions, and cultures and gave them a common language and a sense of common purpose. We have not outgrown our need for this; far from it." ("Where We Stand," March 3, 1997)
  
  "There is no more reason to pay for private education than there is to pay for a private swimming pool for those who do not use public facilities."
  
  "It is as much the duty of the union to preserve public education as it is to negotiate a good contract."
   Section::::Forms.:Vouchers.
  
  Vouchers give students the opportunity to attend a private school of their choosing, secular or religious. This would be paid for by accessing all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education.
  
  Section::::Forms.:Charter schools.
   Private schools are less common than public schools. A large number of private elementary schools with under 20 students exist, but most private high schools in Maine can be perceived as "semi-private." This means that while it costs money to send children there, towns will make a contract with a school to take children from a town or MSAD at a slightly reduced rate. Often this is done when it is deemed cheaper to subsidize private tuition than build a whole new school when a private one already exists.
   The oldest continuing school voucher programs existing today in the United States are the Town Tuitioning programs in Vermont and Maine, beginning in 1869 and 1873 respectively. Because some towns in these states operate neither local high schools nor elementary schools, students in these towns "are eligible for a voucher to attend [either] public schools in other towns or non-religious private schools. In these cases, the 'sending' towns pay tuition directly to the 'receiving' schools."
   The table below shows the school districts that are now under the governance of mayor-appointed boards and, in some cases, mayor-appointed heads of schools.
  
  Other locations have varying degrees of mayoral control over schools: in Oakland, California, three of the 10 members of the Oakland Unified School District board members are appointed by the mayor, and the other seven are elected. Mayoral control proposals have also been made in  Albuquerque, New Mexico and Seattle.
   Local property taxes for public school funding may have disadvantages depending on how wealthy or poor these cities may be. Some of the disadvantages may be not having the proper electives of students interest or advanced placement courses to further the knowledge and education of these students. Cases such as these limit students and causes inequality in education because there is no easy way to gain access to those courses since the education system might not view them as necessary. The public education system does provide the classes needed to obtain a GED (General Education Development) and obtain a job or pursue higher education.
   Most parents send their children to either a public or private institution. According to government data, one-tenth of students are enrolled in private schools. Approximately 85% of students enter the public schools, largely because they are tax-subsidized (tax burdens by school districts vary from area to area). School districts are usually separate from other local jurisdictions, with independent officials and budgets.
   Section::::Spatial inequalities.:Available resources.:Investment decisions.
  
  Even if families and schools have the same resources available to them, that doesn't mean they will use them in the same way, or to the same extent. Often, people need proof that there is a connection between investing resources and academic success before they do it. Investment decisions are a function of both resources available and political processes, in regards to distribution of public funds.
  
  Section::::Spatial inequalities.:Available resources.:Investment decisions.:To the family.
   Overall, the question of whether to elect or appoint boards of education requires a thoughtful consideration of the "appropriate balance" between responsiveness and responsibility.
  
  Section::::Impact of mayoral control on student outcomes.
   There are more than 600 city, local, and exempted village school districts providing K-12 education in Ohio, as well as about four dozen joint vocation school districts which are separate from the K-12 districts. Each city school district, local school district, or exempted village school district is governed by an elected board of education. A school district previously under state supervision (municipal school district) may be governed by a board whose members either are elected or appointed by the mayor of the municipality containing the greatest portion of the district's area.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Politics of Ohio
   District of Choice
   Another argument in favor of school choice is based on cost-effectiveness. Studies undertaken by the Cato Institute and other libertarian and conservative think tanks conclude that privately run education both costs less and produces superior outcomes compared to public education.
   BULLET::::- Choice and affordability for the poor: Parents can choose private schools because of perceptions of better-quality teaching and facilities, and an English language instruction preference. Nevertheless, the concept of 'choice' does not apply in all contexts, or to all groups in society, partly because of limited affordability (which excludes most of the poorest) and other forms of exclusion, related to caste or social status.
   Scholarship tax credit programs currently exist in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
   List of free schools in England with a local authority sponsor
  
  Free schools listed on this page all have formal local authority representation on the board of trustees. The list is not exhaustive.
  
  It is possible for a local authority to sponsor a free school in partnership with other organisations, provided they have no more than a 19.9% representation on the board. In some cases the local authority sponsoring the trust is different to the local authority in which the school resides, so in those cases the partnering local authority has also been listed.
   In the United States, state and local government have primary responsibility for education. The Federal Department of Education plays a role in standards setting and education finance, and some primary and secondary schools, for the children of military employees, are run by the Department of Defense.
  
  K–12 students in most areas have a choice between free tax-funded public schools, or privately funded private schools.
   The origins of school choice can be traced to a 1955 proposal by the prominent economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman who suggested that America's public school system could be improved through free market principles. Friedman proposed giving parents the opportunity to use state and local funds, otherwise designated for local school districts, in the form of vouchers to attend other private or public institutions.
  
  Section::::Forms of School Choice in Pennsylvania.
  
  Section::::Forms of School Choice in Pennsylvania.:Educational Tax Credit.
   Portland schools were questioned by Harvey W. Scott and The Oregonian in 1880, especially regarding the efficacy and practicality of public high schools. The yearly cost to educate a student in 1879 in Portland was $24.06.
   Mayoral control of schools
  
  Mayoral control of schools is governance over American schools based on the business model, in which the mayor of a city replaces an elected board of education (school board) with an appointed board. The mayor may also directly appoint the head of the school system, called the CEO, superintendent or chancellor. Also known as integrated governance, mayoral control of schools is in contrast to the structure it replaces: an elected board that governs schools independently from the formal influence of the mayor.
  
raw_presuppositions: Children are only limited to one choice of public school.
raw_corrections: Children can transfer to other pubic schools and requirements vary.