A. Financing the Schools

     A nation-wide campaign by an anti-tax organization, with support from individuals and other groups, is seeking to shift school financing from the property, sales and income taxes that now support school systems to the so-called sin taxes—taxes on gambling, alcohol and tobacco. The governor of Texas proposed an extra $5 for admission to topless bars.
     "Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia are among the states that have shifted part of the cost of schooling from income, sales and property taxes to levies on gambling and nude or topless dances in the last few years," David Cay Johnston wrote in The New York Times. Other states are considering the transfer of the tax burden, some by making video lottery games available state-wide.
     Johnston writes that there is a "growing sophistication among wealthiest and corporate taxpayers in escaping state levies. In Oregon, for example, most major businesses pay only the $10 minimum corporate income tax."
     What is the school financing system in your state? Is it under attack? Does it give equal educational opportunity to all children, whether in wealthy school districts or poor ones? Have any of the media written about school financing? If so, what have they found?

B. Scores

     American 15-year-olds were tested in reading, science and mathematics and their scores compared with students in 31 other developed countries who were given the same tests by the program for International Student Assessment.
     American students ranked 15th in reading, 14th in science and 18th in mathematics. The top-scoring countries in the three categories were Finland, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.
     Why do you think American students fare only as average despite this country's spending much more on education than other countries? What can journalists do to help improve educational attainment? You might want to cite SAT or ACT scores of high school students in your community.

C. Comparison

     Here are data that an education reporter gathered for an article comparing two adjacent cities in terms of the quality of education. List the questions you would ask at each school for a story.