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School Funding Equity
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A Brief
Overview
Impact
of Inequity
It is a well
documented fact that school funding affects students' ability
to succeed academically. A longitudinal study of 40,000
students by the US Department of Education ("Prospects") found
that students attending poor schools, even those students who
come from wealthy or middle class families, still score, on
average, 2 grade levels lower in mathematics and 4 grade levels
lower in reading than do students in wealthy
schools.
Causes of
Inequity
A report presented by
the US General Accounting Office in 1997 (School Finance) found
that, in the United States, the average school in a wealthy
district receives 24% more funding than the average school in a
poor district. It also found that disparities in funding
between school districts depended primarily on three
factors:
1. The
extent to which the state targeted funding to poor
districts
2. The state's
share of total funding, regardless of whether the targeting
effort was low
3. The local tax
effort in poor communities
Targeting
Efforts
Although unequal
funding has been ruled unconstitutional in ten states, only 33
states have targeted poor districts for more funding. Two
states-Louisiana and North Dakota- actually provide more state
funding for wealthy districts than they do for poor districts.
Twenty-five states reported making no changes in their
targeting of poor districts or the state's share in total
educational funding during the last decade.
State
Share
The GAO found that
state share was the single greatest determiner of equity in
school funding. Right now state and local funding are more or
less equal nationwide, but state share varies a great deal from
state to state. For example, in Hawaii the state provides 98%
of total funding, while the state of New Hampshire provides
only 8.3%.
Local Tax
Effort
Poor districts in 35
states make a greater tax effort than do wealthy districts in
the same state (in other words, poor people in those states pay
higher property taxes than do wealthy people). In Wyoming, for
example, the property tax rate in poor communities is more than
400% higher than the rate in wealthy communities. While poor
communities that taxed themselves more than their wealthy
counterparts did manage to lessen the funding gap slightly in
their states, generally property values in those communities
were low enough to prevent a significant impact on funding
disparities.
Disparities
Persist
Despite efforts in
many states, funding gaps continue to be a serious problem. In
41 of 50 states, poor districts receive less total funding than
wealthy districts. In 14 states, including Illinois, the
minimum funding per student is less than half of the state
average.
Racist
Policies
It is abundantly
clear that the funding disparity is a racial issue as well as
an economic one. African American and Latino students are
consistently over-represented in those districts that lack
adequate funding for education. Such is the case in Illinois.
Although African Americans represent 14.8% of Illinois' total
population, they make up only 2.1% of the population in the
state's wealthiest county, while Illinois' poorest county is
34.7% African American.
The Federal
Government and Title I
The federal
government does little to encourage state's to craft equitable
finance systems. The Title I Education Incentive Finance
Program would award federal money to states based on their
levels of equity, but the program has yet to receive
funding.
While Title I of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides $8.2 billion
annually for disadvantaged students in almost every district in
the country, it has met with spurious results. Federal funding
also represents only 7% of school funding nationwide, with the
other 93% being left to the often-antiquated state and local
systems.
Illinois
Illinois has one of
the worst funding gaps in the nation. The average funding in
Illinois' poorest districts is $4,330 per student while the
average funding in the wealthiest districts is $7,249. That
translates to a funding gap of 67%, almost three times the
national average.The state provides only 33% of total
educational funding and targeting efforts are low.
Until 1997, little
effort had been made to equalize school funding in Illinois and
efforts since than have met with mixed results. In December of
1997, the General assembly passed a bill that will increase
school spending by $1.6 billion over three years. The bill also
set Illinois' first minimum funding level at $4,100 per
student. While the minimum set forth in the bill is well above
the $3,100 per student that a few of the state's worst funded
schools were receiving before the bill was passed, it its
actually less than the average per student spending for
Illinois' poorest districts.
Last spring Governor
Edgar (currently ex-Governor) backed a plan that would have
dramatically restructured Illinois' property tax based
educational system. By imposing a 25% state income tax
increase, it would have minimized the school system's
dependence on local property taxes. Republicans in the state
Senate buried the plan.A More Comprehensive Look
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