Friday
August 22, 2008
by desertjim
In 1991, Jonathan Kozol published Savage Inequalities decrying the horrible inequities in school funding between rich suburban school districts and poorer urban and rural districts. Lucy Klocksin addressed the issue in her post on TEN last month. Seventeen years after Kozol’s book, the issue has reached the boiling point in Illinois.
State Senator James Meeks (Chicago-Democrat) has been urging students in his district to skip the first day of school in protest to the unequal funding. Meeks even suggests the Chicago students use the time to apply for admission at New Trier High School in Winnetka. He points out that this year, Chicago schools will spend $10,409 on each child, while New Trier will have $16,856 available for each student. Despite some local support for the boycott, Mayor Daley and the Baptist Ministers Conference of Chicago and Vicinity want students to attend school starting the first day of class (September 2, this year) and not waste a day of their education.
A different approach to the problem has been put forward by the Chicago Urban League. The League is suing the State of Illinois to force the state to alter the education funding system.Currently, Illinois ranks 49th of the 50 states in the state-contributed portion of school funding. 62% of school funding in Illinois comes from local sources. (Nationally the rate is 50%). Affluent communities can fund their schools much more easily than poor ones. The per-pupil funding ranges from $23,000 down to districts that can only afford $6,000.
The Urban League suit argues that, “The disparities in funding discriminate against black and Hispanic children. Schools in poorer minority communities - such as Chicago - receive funding at a dramatically lower rate than affluent white scool districts”
Inequities in school funding are not limited to Illinois (although the ranking as 49th out of 50 should wake up some state legislators). It is long past time that we seriously consider what is best for our children, and whose responsibility it is to pay for public education.
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As a Chicago Public School teacher I heard the news about a possible boycott of classes on the first day of school and wasn’t sure how I felt. I know that first day attendance is critically important and that it impacts the amount of federal funding that comes our way. So obviously we want every student in school on day one. On the other hand, I silently cheered because the kind of attention this hoopla could bring to our funding crisis promised to be big. Once the Urban League filed their law suit, I knew that attention to this issue had been heightened. Hooray for the Urban League. This type of law suit HAS changed the way schools are funded in other states. My fingers are crossed.
Lucy Klocksin
I just received this e-mail, relative to the school funding situation.
“...State senator [Meeks] and a former Republican candidate for governor on Monday proposed a three-year, $40 million pilot project aimed at proving that better funding and more resources would give low-performing schools a lift.
The proposal could lay the groundwork for the long-sought statewide overhaul of public school funding, possibly including a tax increase, once the 2010 race for governor is over.
Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), who outlined the proposal with GOP businessman Ron Gidwitz in a meeting with the Tribune editorial board, also tied the proposal to his call for Chicago Public Schools students to boycott the first day of classes Sept. 2.”
Just ran across this post on the Carnival of Education. I would suggest before you condem Illinois you consider the following.
The 2007 Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) test results, Reading, Science, and Math combined, for 11th graders in CPS, which spends $10,400 per student, show that 22% of Black students Meet or Exceed standards while 63% of White students Meet or Exceed standards. Same schools, same funding levels, and a large achievement gap. In Evanston District High HSD 202 where funding exceeds $17,000 per student, the same PSAE test show that 31% of Black Students Meet or Exceed standards while 89% of White students Meet or Exceed standards. District 211 in the Northwest Suburbs with funding around $13,500 per student, the PSAE shows that 27% of Black students Meet or Exceed Standards while 74% of White Students meet or Exceed standards.
Attendence at CPS high schools is worse than horrible with a number of them having attendence rates of less than 70% on any give day.
I can cite schools that are funded at 80% of CPS per student funding levels and doing a far better job of education with close to 70% of the students meeting or exceeding state standards.
Lest you accuse me of “cherry picking” the data, you can and should review the PSAE scores for all high schools in the state, as I have. What you will find is, regardless of funding, a similar achievement level in the vast majority of these schools.
This data strongly suggest and support the notion that increased funding for “underfunded” Chicago Public Schools will not affect the Black/White education achievement gap.
I am curious as to what you saw as the topic of the original post. Your post seems tied to the premise that the arguments in Illinois are all related to racial issues. I’m not as confident as you are that race is the primary issue for Senator Meeks or the Chicago Urban League.
While your breakdown of data on racial lines is interesting, and is certainly worthy of further discussion, it is off the point of the suggested boycott and lawsuit. Illinois students receive different levels of funding due to the reliance on local property taxes to fund 62% of their education.
My question to you goes to the main point of the current argument going on in Illinois. Are you in favor of gross inequities in school funding?
