This is the first time we all got a real book.
August 15, 2018 6:19 PM Subscribe
In Pennsylvania, a state with 500 school districts, the funding crisis of public education is not a breaking news story. It's been the reality for years. Students study in decaying buildings, can only dream about art classes and fight the stigma of being from "that school." The crisis of funding public education is imminent as the court is set to look into how Pennsylvania funds public education and if it violates the State Constitution. In this series, we explore deepening inequities across school districts and ask: Will the school funding crisis in Pa. ever be solved?
Two adjacent districts. Different academic worlds. The story of Sto-Rox and Montour.
“It makes me sad for them. I think if you were born 2 miles away you would have a big fireplace in your library,” she said, referring to the fireplace in the new $50 million Montour Elementary.
I teach at Sto-Rox high school. I am tired of telling my students we cannot give them more.
“We can’t do that!” Every teacher hears this from their students sometime, when beginning a lesson or introducing a new learning experience. And the students may believe it’s true. But in most school districts, with some encouragement and instruction, the students find that they can succeed at the lesson or project. But what happens when the resources they need to complete the lesson or project simply aren’t available?
Sto-Rox parent: ‘I get embarrassed… It just reminds me of the failure that I am for my kids.’
Maranda’s mother, Christine Kelly, said her son, who will start seventh grade this fall, has asked why he can’t go to school in Montour. “I explain that we don’t live in that district. I don’t know how really to explain it,” she said.
Is Pennsylvania’s school funding unfair? This lawsuit hopes to upend the model.
If the plaintiffs are successful, it would likely mean that they’ve convinced the court to order the state Legislature to create a new funding formula, one that recognizes that students in different communities require different levels of state funding to meet academic standards.
Two adjacent districts. Different academic worlds. The story of Sto-Rox and Montour.
“It makes me sad for them. I think if you were born 2 miles away you would have a big fireplace in your library,” she said, referring to the fireplace in the new $50 million Montour Elementary.
I teach at Sto-Rox high school. I am tired of telling my students we cannot give them more.
“We can’t do that!” Every teacher hears this from their students sometime, when beginning a lesson or introducing a new learning experience. And the students may believe it’s true. But in most school districts, with some encouragement and instruction, the students find that they can succeed at the lesson or project. But what happens when the resources they need to complete the lesson or project simply aren’t available?
Sto-Rox parent: ‘I get embarrassed… It just reminds me of the failure that I am for my kids.’
Maranda’s mother, Christine Kelly, said her son, who will start seventh grade this fall, has asked why he can’t go to school in Montour. “I explain that we don’t live in that district. I don’t know how really to explain it,” she said.
Is Pennsylvania’s school funding unfair? This lawsuit hopes to upend the model.
If the plaintiffs are successful, it would likely mean that they’ve convinced the court to order the state Legislature to create a new funding formula, one that recognizes that students in different communities require different levels of state funding to meet academic standards.
While I don't understand much about the reasons going into it (I'm not a coloradoan) but this story about 4-day schooling in a Colorado school district has been making me angry all day and dovetails with this discussion. Even as a childfree-by-choice type person I don't understand why people don't see the importance of equal schools for all, but instead will seek a little short term gain (what, a few bucks a year on your property taxes or sales taxes?) in order to shaft the children and their families. By my estimation, a family that has to send one child to a new monday daycare for "just" $30 will lose anything they saved in lowered taxes by this asinine move.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:46 PM on August 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:46 PM on August 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
Taxes pay for civilization... And education...
posted by Windopaene at 8:13 PM on August 15, 2018 [11 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 8:13 PM on August 15, 2018 [11 favorites]
Montour officials did not release a full budget for its musical, saying it is operated by the outside organization Montour Friends for the Performing Arts. In response to a Right-to-Know Law request for musical costs, the district indicated it donated $7,000 to the musical and paid $100 total for 30 students to attend the theater arts workshop. In response to follow-up questions, the district also revealed it paid a stipend of $3,025 to the musical director.
holy crow, I've been involved with professional productions that didn't get that kind of funding.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:34 PM on August 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
holy crow, I've been involved with professional productions that didn't get that kind of funding.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:34 PM on August 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
So, you've got to pay out the nose to buy a house in the "right" district depleting your "discretionary" income. You self-fund "retirement." You're supposed to save for astronomical college tuition that will be at some unknown number at the time your kid "decides" whether to go to college or not (and where and study what?). A bad health event can put you into bankruptcy. Why can't they see it? And why can't they see that solutions start at the bottom up?
posted by amanda at 9:24 PM on August 15, 2018 [13 favorites]
posted by amanda at 9:24 PM on August 15, 2018 [13 favorites]
The current solution guarantees zero social mobility and total control of the future by the wealthy. I see no reason why the current powers-that-be would see Pennsylvania as anything but a success story.
posted by Mogur at 4:17 AM on August 16, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by Mogur at 4:17 AM on August 16, 2018 [6 favorites]
As long as we persist in having only locally controlled schools funded primarily by local property taxes in our white supremacist society, the end results will always be separate and unequal. Over and over again.
(poor white kids are hurt by this system, too, but the reason the system exists is white supremacy)
posted by hydropsyche at 4:43 AM on August 16, 2018 [10 favorites]
(poor white kids are hurt by this system, too, but the reason the system exists is white supremacy)
posted by hydropsyche at 4:43 AM on August 16, 2018 [10 favorites]
Colorado: “We’re going to so shamelessly underfund schools and short-change our children one of our larger districts is going to go 4-a-week.”
Oklahoma: “Just one schools district? Here, hold my beer.”
posted by midmarch snowman at 5:24 AM on August 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
Oklahoma: “Just one schools district? Here, hold my beer.”
posted by midmarch snowman at 5:24 AM on August 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
This is what escalating inequality looks like.
Several years ago Robert Putnam published Our Kids, a detailed look at how these hyper-local funding differences are formed and what they do. He foresaw a generation of increased class separation, which schooling helped form. He wanted to get politicians talking about this and doing something about it.
posted by doctornemo at 6:50 AM on August 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Several years ago Robert Putnam published Our Kids, a detailed look at how these hyper-local funding differences are formed and what they do. He foresaw a generation of increased class separation, which schooling helped form. He wanted to get politicians talking about this and doing something about it.
posted by doctornemo at 6:50 AM on August 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have been saying this since I was a child. The method by which we fund public schools in America is discriminatory, hurtful, and will destroy the nation. Funding by property taxes is designed to undo the very purpose of public schools. If the point of public and free education is to establish a level playing field that allows all children the opportunity for education, then funding those schools based on the value of property in the neighborhood is counterproductive.
We will never have economic parity until we have educational parity. Schools must be funded out of the same pile of money for the entire state and allocated based on the number of students. Programs could then be even throughout the state. This would also level off the bullshit of "good neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods" based on a school.
In many states, this formula is already in place for both federal and state money. It's just that local districts get additional money based on property taxes.
This is a civil rights issue, this is a human rights issue and it needs to be solved.
posted by teleri025 at 7:00 AM on August 16, 2018 [15 favorites]
We will never have economic parity until we have educational parity. Schools must be funded out of the same pile of money for the entire state and allocated based on the number of students. Programs could then be even throughout the state. This would also level off the bullshit of "good neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods" based on a school.
In many states, this formula is already in place for both federal and state money. It's just that local districts get additional money based on property taxes.
This is a civil rights issue, this is a human rights issue and it needs to be solved.
posted by teleri025 at 7:00 AM on August 16, 2018 [15 favorites]
asking parents to send in basic school equipment (we're talking things like exercise books, pens, glue). Schools in more affluent areas are doing better at fundraising than those in poorer areas - but no one, posh village or poor inner-city area, should be having to send A4 paper into their kids' school.
That's been standard practice across the US for decades now. Mind you, I'm not saying that makes it okay, I'm just saying that yeah, that's a trend. Some of the poorer schools in my area even ask the parents to contribute things like toilet paper.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:43 AM on August 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
That's been standard practice across the US for decades now. Mind you, I'm not saying that makes it okay, I'm just saying that yeah, that's a trend. Some of the poorer schools in my area even ask the parents to contribute things like toilet paper.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:43 AM on August 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
In response to the differences in fundraising ability, some districts are pooling PTA fundraisers, so that kids from poorer neighborhoods can also have access to school musicals, lego labs, and toilet paper.
posted by hydropsyche at 8:04 AM on August 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 8:04 AM on August 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Leaders at several overachieving PTAs also said their generosity addressed another kind of inequality: Their schools did not benefit from Title I, the federal taxpayer-funded program for schools that serve large numbers of poor children.Oh, well, in THAT case.
posted by jeather at 8:17 AM on August 16, 2018 [6 favorites]
This is what escalating inequality looks like.
There are 12 billionaires who made the state of Pennsylvania their residence in 2017, insofar as taxes are concerned.
There were more than 228k millionaires in 2006.
Pennsylvania's education budget for this fiscal year is just over $6 Billion, split among what looks like about 1.7 million students.
Something doesn't add up.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:27 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
There are 12 billionaires who made the state of Pennsylvania their residence in 2017, insofar as taxes are concerned.
There were more than 228k millionaires in 2006.
Pennsylvania's education budget for this fiscal year is just over $6 Billion, split among what looks like about 1.7 million students.
Something doesn't add up.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:27 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Their schools did not benefit from Title I, the federal taxpayer-funded program for schools that serve large numbers of poor children.
As the parent of a child in a Title I school: ahahahahaha please kindly fuck right off.
Quite frankly I see fucking red every time I talk to someone (inevitably someone who considers themselves liberal) about their plans to move to the burbs as soon as their kids get school aged. This is one thing I get really high-horsey about.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:43 AM on August 16, 2018 [6 favorites]
As the parent of a child in a Title I school: ahahahahaha please kindly fuck right off.
Quite frankly I see fucking red every time I talk to someone (inevitably someone who considers themselves liberal) about their plans to move to the burbs as soon as their kids get school aged. This is one thing I get really high-horsey about.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:43 AM on August 16, 2018 [6 favorites]
One has to wonder whether the underfunding of education to this desperate level is deliberate.
How many yachts does Betsy DeVos own?
It is absolutely deliberate.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 9:30 AM on August 16, 2018 [5 favorites]
How many yachts does Betsy DeVos own?
It is absolutely deliberate.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 9:30 AM on August 16, 2018 [5 favorites]
Also, people who say "I don't have kids, why should I have to pay taxes for other people's kids to go to school" can get lost. You're not paying for "other people's kids to go to school", you're paying for your education, that you had, for free, when you were a child.
I would like billboards printed with this every 200 feet on every highway in Florida, please.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 9:34 AM on August 16, 2018 [5 favorites]
I would like billboards printed with this every 200 feet on every highway in Florida, please.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 9:34 AM on August 16, 2018 [5 favorites]
Something doesn't add up.
Oligarchies don't make themselves.
someone (inevitably someone who considers themselves liberal) about their plans to move to the burbs as soon as their kids get school aged.
Good example of how escalating inequality can be bipartisan.
posted by doctornemo at 9:36 AM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oligarchies don't make themselves.
someone (inevitably someone who considers themselves liberal) about their plans to move to the burbs as soon as their kids get school aged.
Good example of how escalating inequality can be bipartisan.
posted by doctornemo at 9:36 AM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
Schools must be funded out of the same pile of money for the entire state and allocated based on the number of students. Programs could then be even throughout the state. This would also level off the bullshit of "good neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods" based on a school.
I live in a state that mostly does this.
Schools are about 70% funded by the state, with the rest coming from local property taxes, federal funds, and assorted other places.
It is no panacea, it mostly just means that rather than dealing with local politicians who are likely to have a stake in your school district, you end up being subject to the whims of politicians who live 300 miles away.
posted by madajb at 10:20 AM on August 16, 2018
I live in a state that mostly does this.
Schools are about 70% funded by the state, with the rest coming from local property taxes, federal funds, and assorted other places.
It is no panacea, it mostly just means that rather than dealing with local politicians who are likely to have a stake in your school district, you end up being subject to the whims of politicians who live 300 miles away.
posted by madajb at 10:20 AM on August 16, 2018
> As the parent of a child in a Title I school: ahahahahaha please kindly fuck right off.
My kid was in a Title 1 school (despite our being in suburbia), which "failed" No Child Left Behind standards. We were offered a spot at a school that passed. Same district, same distance from our house, but different demographics and different PTA. It's such bullshit that the immediate surroundings of a school make an enormous difference in the school's performance.
(We loved her Title 1 school and happily kept here there.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:29 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
My kid was in a Title 1 school (despite our being in suburbia), which "failed" No Child Left Behind standards. We were offered a spot at a school that passed. Same district, same distance from our house, but different demographics and different PTA. It's such bullshit that the immediate surroundings of a school make an enormous difference in the school's performance.
(We loved her Title 1 school and happily kept here there.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:29 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Why can't they see it? And why can't they see that solutions start at the bottom up?
Because it’s all working just as they intended.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:19 AM on August 16, 2018
Because it’s all working just as they intended.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:19 AM on August 16, 2018
-- Also, people who say "I don't have kids, why should I have to pay taxes for other people's kids to go to school" can get lost. You're not paying for "other people's kids to go to school", you're paying for your education, that you had, for free, when you were a child.
---- I would like billboards printed with this every 200 feet on every highway in Florida, please.
Can we also add "...and the educations of the doctor and the nurse and the caretakers in your dotacy, you idiots?" And have those in every state?
We can leave out the "you idiots." If you insist.
posted by seyirci at 11:25 AM on August 16, 2018 [10 favorites]
---- I would like billboards printed with this every 200 feet on every highway in Florida, please.
Can we also add "...and the educations of the doctor and the nurse and the caretakers in your dotacy, you idiots?" And have those in every state?
We can leave out the "you idiots." If you insist.
posted by seyirci at 11:25 AM on August 16, 2018 [10 favorites]
Schools must be funded out of the same pile of money for the entire state and allocated based on the number of students. Programs could then be even throughout the state.
I'd actually give more per sudent in a school in a poor neighborhood. If a school in a wealthy neighborhood doesn't have something, parents tend to step in and fill the funding gap. Parents with less money can't do that, so their kids still end up missing out.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:30 AM on August 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
I'd actually give more per sudent in a school in a poor neighborhood. If a school in a wealthy neighborhood doesn't have something, parents tend to step in and fill the funding gap. Parents with less money can't do that, so their kids still end up missing out.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:30 AM on August 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
I grew up in the North Penn school district, a place so wealthy the high school has its own planetarium. As an adult, it sure does seem like the system is hardly designed to produce an equitable result, I must say.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:13 PM on August 16, 2018
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:13 PM on August 16, 2018
I grew up in Hampton, and my kids go to Quaker Valley, and we both benefited, but I know this situation is just so very wrong.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:25 PM on August 16, 2018
posted by Chrysostom at 6:25 PM on August 16, 2018
I don't have kids and never want to. But I have no problem with my taxes going to education. Like....children are our future and what not. I also love donating filled backpacks when I can, but I rarely have the extra money any more. My parents were both teachers in Michigan, and spent a LOT of their own time and money on their students, only to now be taxed on their pensions. Yay education.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 2:09 PM on August 17, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by misanthropicsarah at 2:09 PM on August 17, 2018 [4 favorites]
Ah, Cyril, Cement, Fletcher, Sterling, Indiahoma; stay classy rural OK, stay classy. Gotta miss it all like a family home for a century+; otoh; some parts of the world just consume themselves and then complain about the indigestion.
posted by Afghan Stan at 11:10 PM on August 18, 2018
posted by Afghan Stan at 11:10 PM on August 18, 2018
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My kid attends Pittsburgh Public Schools and even though the district is not quite in the same straits as Sto-Rox, it's still under-resourced and it still really smarts when I see what kids just 5 miles away have versus what's going on at our school. I saw a picture of the Montour Minecraft Lab a few days ago, before I read these stories, and it hurt. Just like it does every year when I get the Remake Learning Days events booklet that invites me to attend robot playtimes and STEAM labs and Fab Labs at all the wealthy suburban districts. Not for my own kid because we have the resources to give him at home what his school is unable to provide, but for his little buddies who lack that degree of privilege. The kids at his school want to program robots and play Minecraft for a grade the same as any others. Their school is 1 mile from Google HQ in one direction, and from CMU in the other. Uber and Argos autonomous vehicles drive right by the school building on the regs, but the kids inside are in danger of being left behind. (NB: Pittsburgh's largest employers and property-owners are all nonprofits--universities and a "nonprofit" health system--and thus do not pay property taxes, though "voluntary contributions" have been negotiated with them, it's very much not the same.)
Pennsylvania's double problem of absolutely minuscule districts--drawn by municipality rather than county or region--and the funding model both need to be nuked from orbit.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:31 PM on August 15, 2018 [21 favorites]