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September 12, 2024

Weekend Edition

• Use the DonorsChoose website to find an Equity Focus School near you. You can search by project type, city, and state. Remember, all donations will be matched next Wednesday, September 18, so set a notification to donate then!

• Take some time to research any nonprofit organizations or community initiatives rallying for equitable funding in schools where you live. Note: will be driving into this further in a future issue next week.

• Consider: How might your school experience be different if your school had drastically different levels of funding?

Education is portrayed as a remedy for these divisions: a “great equalizer,” according to U.S. public education advocate Horace Mann (Britannica). Instead, vast disparities in public school funding and conditions based on students’ economic class and race make the educational system a catalyst for inequality.

Although Brown v. Board of Education outlawed explicit racial segregation in schools almost 70 years ago, de facto racial segregation never ended. Half of the public school students in the U.S. attend overwhelmingly white or nonwhite schools. White school districts get $23 billion more than nonwhite districts annually (NPR). Even integrated schools lose resources when affluent white parents pull their children out to attend private institutions instead — whether or not those parents feel “a lot of guilt” about their decisions (Huffington Post). Wild disparities in school funding in a country “rife with apartheid schools” make education a vastly unequal public good (Complex). 

“Right now, there exists an almost ironclad link between a child’s ZIP code and her chances of success,” says James E. Ryan of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “Our education system, traditionally thought of as the chief mechanism to address the opportunity gap, instead too often reflects and entrenches existing societal inequities” (Harvard Gazette). 

These school funding deficits leave students without desks, books, or safe buildings to learn in (The Guardian). Unfortunately, many teachers are left to face this funding gap on their own, starting the school year by crowdfunding for classroom supplies. Studies show that, on average, educators spend between $500 and $750 of their own money each year on things students need. Teachers who work with mostly students of color spend 31% more, indicating access to fewer resources from their schools. And the NEA notes that inflation has increased prices for school supplies by almost 24%, making back-to-school season all the more costly.

Sarah, a third-grade teacher in Louisiana, shared how this burden impacts her. "Every August, I find myself dipping deeper into my own pockets just to make sure my kids have what they need. And this is basic stuff like notebooks, pencils, and art supplies. I can't even afford a fan to keep the classroom cool! It's disheartening that we're expected to do all this from our own salaries, which are already stretched thin. I love teaching, but the financial burden is becoming unsustainable."

This is unnecessary stress that might prompt teachers to leave the classroom altogether. A study from earlier this year found that teachers leave the field at much higher rates than lawyers, engineers, or architects—and at slightly higher rates than nurses or police officers. Teachers at lower-income schools tend to leave more quickly than teachers at more resource schools because the schools tend to have less supportive working conditions (EdWeek). School leaders are often forced to replace them with less experienced, less effective teachers.

And when these teachers are teachers of color, their departure can have devastating consequences for nonwhite students. Half of all students are people of color, but only 20% of public school teachers are people of color. Studies prove that students of color thrive when they have teachers of color. In one study, the graduation rate among Black students increased by 33% if they had at least one Black teacher between third and fifth grade. A study from the University of Michigan found that a teacher having just one funded DonorsChoose project improved teacher retention by 1-3%.

We can't be expected to transform all systemic educational inequities alone. However, there's much we can do to help alleviate teachers' burden and advocate for more equitable funding in our school districts. Every child deserves a safe and supportive learning environment with the tools they need to succeed, and our future depends on it.