Education Inequality Data in PA
It is no surprise to anyone who reads this that there is inequality in spending for public school students in PA.
But a new website, the Federal Education Budget Project, makes that data available for everyone to see and the results are pretty amazing.
See the inequality in funding per pupil in PA in 2006: http://febp.newamerica.net/k12/pa/4218990/comparison/custom
Here is a list of some of the results:
- Schuylkill Haven Area School District - $7,142
- Philadelphia City School District - $8,958
- Abington School District - $12,257
- Pittsburgh School District - $14,947
- Lower Merion School District - $18,366
I'm surprised to see Pittsburg's is relatively so high.
Nationwide here are the lowest:
- OREGON Scio School District 095 - $4,018
- OHIO College Corner Local School District - $4,085
- CALIFORNIA Western Placer Unified - $4,444
and the highest:
- NEW YORK Wainscott Comn School District - $63,214
- NEW YORK Kiryas Joel Village Union Free School District - $68,384
- NEW YORK Fire Island Union Free School District - $82,833
- LOUISIANA St. Bernard Parish School Board - $106,272
- OREGON Double O School District 028 - $125,000
I have to wonder about the accuracy of some of these numbers, but overall the trend is pretty clear. There is a wide gap in funding between students in different districts. How can we justify that?
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These numbers don't show the extent of PA's funding disparity...
Aaron, thanks for bringing attention to the serious funding gap facing many PA students. In fact, these numbers don't even represent the true extent to which PA school districts are inequitably funded...
...because when you just look at the dollar amounts, you don't see the true costs of educating students in these different districts. For example, it costs significantly more to educate students who are living in poverty or who are English Language Learners or who have Special Education needs.
Philadelphia has about 66% of it's students living in poverty, which is double the state average of 33%. And in Philly, 5.9% of our students are English Language Learners (more than double the state average of 2.5%). These factors (and several others) mean that many of Philadelphia's students require more funding per year than the base cost of ~$8,000.
When you take these factors into account, it means that the disparity between Lower Merion school district (which spends almost $19,000 per student/per year and has very low poverty & ELL rates) and Philadelphia school district (which spends about $9,000 per student/per year and has significantly more factors that require additional funding) is even more extreme than these numbers might show.
Fortunately, Philadelphia Student Union and other students, parents & community groups across the city and the state are organizing to eradicate this inequality of resources. PSU played a big role in securing a new school funding formula last year --a formula that is based on the number of students in each district, and their actual needs. And PSU is in the height of our school funding campaign this year, as we organize to make sure that schools get further increases in the coming state budget (to be determined in mid-late June.)
This comment is turning into a post in itself, and there is much more to say....so look for a blog post by a PSU student sometime soon, that will give more details/background about PA's school funding and PSU's campaign.