Investigate school district funding disparities.
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Hi,
Right now the Trump administration is pushing states to reopen schools. Yet as COVID-19 rages, back-to-school is looking more perilous each and every day.
But what will children being going back to? Educational opportunities differ drastically based on location. In this week's issue on education, we're analyzing why there's such disparities in funding between white and non-white school districts.
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Nicole
TAKE ACTION
1. Explore this interactive tool that shows you what your local school district would like if it was more integrated (U.S. Residents).
2. Get the facts: How is your state or city's education budget changing based on COVID-19 ?
3. Reflect. How did your education as a 10-year-old inform your relationship to anti-racism work? Consider what you learned, who you went to school with, who your teachers were, etc.
GET EDUCATED
How much of a difference does $23 billion make, anyway?
That's the question districts had to ask themselves after a study showcased that predominantly white school districts receive $23 billion more funding than districts that serve mostly students of color (Chalkbeat). This creates gross inequities in opportunities between white and non-white students. It also creates inherently segregated schools – after all, these distinctions wouldn't be possible if schools had a diverse demographic of students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds and income levels.
This is because funding for public schools is largely driven by the local property taxes paid by local individuals and businesses. School districts located in spaces where there are thriving businesses and well-off families generally receive more funding (more on this at NPR). And since there are so many systemic issues that prevent businesses from scaling, families from generating income and wealth, and neighborhoods from thriving, you can imagine how easy it is to have underfunded schools. I just glossed over a LOT in this sentence – and each point deserves their own email.
But how is this possible? Didn't we figure out fair and equal education with Brown v. Board of Education, that landmark case that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in 1954, and also dismantled the idea of "separate but equal" (NMAAHC)? If only it were that simple. The case that actually made the educational landscape we see (not the one history books sell) is Milliken v. Bradley.
The impact of Milliken v. Bradley
In 1970, the NAACP sued Michigan to desegregate schools in Detroit – one of the most segregated cities in the country (NYTimes). The goal was to get more of the city students, who were predominately Black, mixed into the mainly white communities of the suburbs, and mixing the local funding that went with them/ The judge, realized that the government shouldn't be in charge of creating school districts and assigning students to certain regions because they're the reason this mess existed in the first place. Instead, he ruled to have districts not exist – evenly distribute funding and students across the region (Washington Post). It wasn't a flawless plan, but it was a start – and a pretty bold declaration for the time.
But in July 1974, the Supreme Court overturned this decision, citing that there wasn't enough evidence that the city ever practiced racial segregation to warrant losing the responsibility to draw school zones. The mayor of a white suburb had just told some newspapers that "I favor segregation" and “Every time we hear of a Negro moving…in, we respond quicker than you do to a fire" but *insert shrug emoji* (Washington Post).
"Piercing school district borders – the walls that prevent enrollment or, in many cases, funds from being spread more evenly between white or relatively more affluent districts and ones populated by black, brown, or poorer families nearby – isn’t a simple task, politically or logistically. But the five justices who wrote Milliken 40 years ago wanted us to believe something else: that it wasn’t a necessary task, morally”.
Daniel Hertz, Washington Post
So this means that local politics can define a child's future. Leaders can choose whether to draw school zones (smaller areas around one or a few schools) and districts (which constitute a number of zones) in ways that hoard wealth for a select group of students, or wield this power to try and create more equitable learning opportunities, and diversify attendance. And unfortunately, studies show that schools in the South are as segregated now as they were about 50 years ago (Vox). And even today, "only about half of America's 50 million public school students attend integrated schools" (NPR).
Inadequate funding makes a major impact – especially now.
States are supposed to even out the funding disparities, but this is the exception more than the rule. In fact, every state in the country has been sued by a school district around inequitable funding (NPR). A recent example is in New Hampshire, where a local school district believes the state should be providing 3x the funding to provide an "adequate education" for its students (NHPR). You can see the funding disparities by state here (US News).
This means that, on average, well-funded school districts spend $2,200 more per student than others (Chalkbeat). And that usually easy to see. School districts with lower budgets tend to have lower teacher retention rates and more teacher strikes due to lower salaries and benefits, professional development, decreased job security, and unfair working conditions. Related, many school districts have less to money to spend on school supplies, forced to pay out of pocket or resort to crowdfunding campaigns like DonorsChoose to meet needs like books, warm clothing and personal hygiene products, and ways to boost health and wellness in the classroom (edfunders.org).
These disparities – like many other racial inequities that already exist – are exacerbated during COVID-19, as schools with limited funding and infrastructure struggle to provide the right tools, training, and resources to staff and students to support remote learning (Teen Vogue). Because many of these same students face limited access to technology and internet at home, the lack of resources available from the school itself is especially damaging.
And consider the lasting impact COVID-19 will have on already strained budgets. States are already slashing school budgets and laying off staff, knowing the gross economic impact of this global pandemic (read more specific examples by state in the Washington Post). It's important to note here that, because of the Great Recession, 31 states sill spent less money per student in 2014 than they did in 2008 (NPR).
And although the CARES act allocated $13.2 billion in aid to schools nationwide using Title I funds (funds designated for students from low-income families), the Dept. of Education is allowing some of those funds to support private institutions, instead of communities that need it most (Time). As a result, five states are suing the Dept. of Education and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, including California, Maine, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and D.C (Time). You can learn more about the funding and how it can be used here, via Future-Ed.
So, how do we change this? The team at EdBuild, who published the "$23 billion" study mentioned at the beginning, advocated for every state to evenly distribute funding across districts, a practice that 13 states do currently (NPR). We also have to do significantly more to change housing inequity and wealth inequity in the neighborhoods that fosters the disparities in funding. It's not a simple fix, but a necessary one, in our fight for equitable educational opportunities for all students.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
School districts are inherently inequitable in racial / ethnic populations and the funding they receive
Only half of students in America go to integrated schools, despite Brown v. Board of Education
The overturning of the Milliken v. Bradley case in 1974 granted states power to decide how school districts would be drawn, despite histories of racial segregation
COVID-19 exacerbates these inequities and will likely have a lasting impact
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