Majority-white school districts received $23 billion more in funding than nonwhite ones: report

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY ARIS FOLLEY - 02/26/19 11:50 AM EST

Majority-white school districts received $23 billion more in funding than majority-nonwhite school districts in 2016 despite both groups serving nearly the same amount of students, a new report has found.

The new report released Tuesday by EdBuild, a research and advocacy group based in New Jersey that focuses on education funding, found that the gap in funding was largely due to the school-funding system’s reliance on local property taxes, The Washington Post reported.

The report found that overwhelmingly white communities tended to be wealthier and thus paid significantly more money in property taxes. That, in turn, significantly affected the majority-white school districts’ ability to raise more money.

And although nonwhite districts were reportedly found to have received slightly more money per student from the state than provided to majority-white districts, the increase was not enough to counter the gap in funding disparities in many states.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/431601-report-majority-white-school-districts-received-23-billion-more-in

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with disgust

[elleng]

2. That's the way our distorted school funding 'plans' work,

made for monied classes, and we've never come up with better solutions, even tho the plans are created by the states. Money gets Money.

[SunSeeker]

3. Yep. Schools should be funded by a common fund instead of directly through local property taxes.

State attorneys general from blue states have been fighting for years to overturn our Apartheid-style school funding system to no avail. This is not how Europe pays for their schools, or any civilized country interested in equal opportunity.

[groundloop]

4. I've said for years that this is a HUGE problem

Poverty will continue to be a never ending cycle for those families within its grasp if nothing is done about the inequality in school funding. Sure, there's the Title 1 program which funnels additional federal money to poor schools, but that doesn't even come close to bridging the gap.

[onenote]

5. Can someone reconcile these two sentences?

I found the Hill story to be very confusing:

States reportedly gave nonwhite districts nearly $7,200 per student and white districts about $6,900 per student. But overall, the gap in state and local tax dollars amounted to roughly $23 billion.

Majority-white districts were also found to have received $2,000 more in funding per student than majority-nonwhite districts.

[csziggy]

6. Most school funding comes from local funding

The disparity in state (and federal) funding is an attempt to level out the funding between districts that are populated by less wealthy and therefore do not raise as much money locally as do richer areas.

Since nonwhites as groups are not as wealthy as whites their districts do not raise as much in local funding. The $300 per student increase to nonwhite districts is not enough to make up the difference in local funding.

[onenote]

7. Thanks

[csziggy]

8. I just realized I didn't really address the difference in the two sentences you cited

Perhaps the first was talking about state funding while the second was talking about federal funding?

[onenote]

10. I think the first one is about state funding and the second about local

But it certainly could have been written more clearly.

[Honeycombe8]

9. Rather than make the distinction racial, it really is related to wealth.

The underfunded schools are a mix of races, mainly, these days. Although it's true that people of color are over represented in poor districts. I think of it as poor districts vs. wealthy districts.

To give some history on this, I am over 60. I first learned of this way back in the 1960s, when I was a young student. I immediately thought how unfair that was. I was surprised that schools would be funded by how wealthy the districts are. It seemed obvious to me that public education should provide equal funding to schools. All students were American. All students had the right to an equal education. And the education of students benefited the country as a whole.

Fast forward over 50 years, and things are still the same, at least in my state.

I guess this is because school funding is determined by state legislatures, which are controlled by the wealthy.

I would like to see some politicians take this on, by maybe passing federal legislation. But I guess that would involve a lawsuit about the fed interfering with state's rights. Still, this is shameful and should be forcefully addressed. There are students who don't have books at all, while nearby schools in wealthy districts have a book for every student, computers, lower teacher-student ratios.

It benefits us all to have ALL young people educated.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. +1. It's why de facto segregation is defended so vigorously.

[Blue_Tires]

11. It's stuff like this those

poor, oppressed Trump voters don't want you to see...

[bronxiteforever]

12. Kick and recommend for visibility

When you hear rich conservatives talking about spending less on education just find out where their kids go to school. The rich don’t send their kids to public schools. Those kids go to a prep school and an elite academy. If money doesn’t matter why don’t they send their kids to the great public schools in the city. It’s because money matters and they prove that point by spending it on their children.

Apartheid exists in education in this Country. I was lucky enough to hear Jonathan Kozol speak on two occasions. He has fought this educational apartheid for his whole life.

[zentrum]

13. Racism by careful design.

[proud patriot]

14. Savage inequalites

near and dear to my heart .

poor kids get taught to obey and punch time cards vs. kids in affluent districts learning to play the
Stock market in elementary school ..

I lived it .

[BumRushDaShow]

16. It's a cycle.

Underfund schools, students come out (if they come out with a degree) at a disadvantage and have lower-paid jobs and then give birth to the next generation who will go through a similar situation - and the community itself can never have enough "local" money to break the cycle. And sadly, when money is provided, it is handed out to nefarious or overwhelmed figures, who squander and/or mismanage the money, which results in the inevitable nasty snarks about the dangers of "throwing money at the problem", and the funding dries up again.

And the other issue here is that many majority-minority districts are utilizing facilities that in many cities, are often over a century old, so there is a whole infrastructure problem that takes money out of the operating funds just to maintain the crumbling buildings (lead in drinking water pipes, asbestos in the ceilings, lead paint on the walls, leaks from the roof, no air-conditioning, and ancient, inefficient heating systems).

But it is by design. Red-lining kept minorities out of the suburbs for decades.

[mahina]

17. This is a legit national emergency!

[itcfish]

18. Funding

On Long Island money comes from school taxes that homeowners pay and are extremely high. This could be one of the reasons for such a large difference. If it were referring to federal funds, that is another story.

[MichMan]

19. If local taxes are separated from school funding.....

…. wait and see how many local millage renewals are voted down. Why vote for higher local taxes if the funds aren't going to be spent locally?

[Nitram]

20. Excellent article in the Washington Post.