Within the last few years, the Scranton School District has let go of almost a hundred teachers, ended multiple after-school programs, and removed countless recreational courses from its curriculum. Unfortunately, this is not a rare sight to see. Urban schools from Chicago to Atlanta have been facing budget cuts for decades. On the other hand, many school districts across the country, primarily those that reside in suburban neighborhoods, have been able to provide their students with limitless access to technology, clubs, counselors, and up-to-date textbooks. But why is this happening? Why are some public schools so much more equipped to teach their students than others? Well, the root cause behind the inequality in America’s public schools is funding. More specifically, the source of funding for public schools. According to Alana Semuels of the Atlantic public schools garner most of their funding from poverty taxes collected by local cities, not the state or federal government. This creates a massive wealth discrepancy in public schools as school districts that are based near wealthier neighborhoods receive more funding compared to school districts placed in high poverty neighborhoods. At the heart of an unequal public school system lies an unequal distribution of opportunity. An unequal distribution that tends to disproportionately harm minority students. Linda Darling-Hammond from the Brookings Institute writes that minority students receive significantly less instructional resources than other students. A study that spanned 900 Texas school districts showed that a large majority of the academic variance shown in minority students was a direct result of insufficient access to resources. Moreover, the inequality that exists in the public school system spans far beyond the twelve years a student spends with their k-12 education. It holds implicit costs such as lost opportunities for many minority students who were never allowed to excel or explore an academic, recreational, or trade field. Fields that may have provided multiple students the opportunity to escape poverty. The solution to this problem isn’t one-dimensional. Each school district faces different challenges that depend on things such as its location or demographic. However, if the federal government or at the very least the state government was able to conduct a thorough analysis of the necessary resources each student should be provided with and distributed funds accordingly. It would be a strong step toward ending inequality in the public school system and providing opportunities for many low-income students.

Works Cited:

Semuels, Alana. “Good School, Rich School; Bad School, Poor School.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 June 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/property-taxes-and-unequal-schools/497333/. (Links to an external site.)

Darling-Hammond, Linda. “Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education.” Brookings, Brookings, 28 July 2016, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/. (Links to an external site.)