Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

Using a recent report from the Center for American Progress as a springboard, Ary Amikaner, the vice president of the Education Trust wrote an article for the NYTimes describing how disparities WITHIN school districts are hidden from the public’s eye. She writes:

The Center for American Progress conducted a rare study of this issue and found that at least 4.5 million students from low-income backgrounds are in schools that receive roughly $1,200 less per child each year than wealthier schools in the very same district.

In a single school, this shortfall can be the difference between adding 12 counselors, granting thousands of dollars in bonuses for dozens of teachers who transfer into hard-to-staff subjects and offering high quality art, music and extracurricular programming — or adding nothing at all. And these baseline funding numbers do not even include major advantages affluent schools have through well-funded P.T.A.s, parental social capital and connections with colleges and universities.

Tis appears to be very disturbing… but in examine the Center of American Progress’ study I can see one very thorny problem: the equitable per pupil results they are seeking is dependent on the seniority of teachers assigned to low income schools and in most large districts teachers are contractually afforded the opportunity to transfer and when they DO transfer, they tend to go to schools where children come from affluent homes. Why? Because those schools have “…well-funded P.T.A.s, parental social capital and connections with colleges and universities.”

The solution to this problem is clear: provide schools serving low income children with substantially higher funding than the affluent schools and make certain that funding goes to services that support the needs of children who come from under-resourced homes. That is, use the money to create what are called “community schools” like those instituted in NYC and profiled in a recent YES article by Florina Roddy. And where will those funds come from? In an ideal world the federal or state governments– not local property taxes payers, would provide the supplemental funding needed. In an ideal world we would be looking out for the poorest children among us and doing all we can to lift them out of poverty. We need to restore that vision if we hope to provide every child with an equal opportunity for learning.