Critical Project #3
Funding Inequities in Education
Karen Y. Carter

Funding education has never been an easy job. With the recent economic crisis, states are cutting the budgets of many school districts while at the same time, parents from underserved communities are questioning funding and spending formulas states use to provide money to their schools. Voters in many states are choosing not to approve bills which provide education funding to their districts.
In 1993, the organization called Campaign for Fiscal Equity filed a lawsuit against New York State charging that New York City schoolchildren are being short changed via the funding formula used to provide money to its schools thereby denying the students their constitutional right to a decent education. After a twelve year battle, the case made its way to the State Supreme Court which ruled that New York State had indeed short changed New York City schoolchildren and must change its funding formula. The governor at that time, George Pataki, chose to appeal the ruling three times rather that adhere to the ruling. The end result came on November 20, 2006 when the State Court of Appeals upheld the right of NYC public school children to a sound basic education and established a minimum funding amount for NYC public schools. There are also at least nineteen other states who face such litigations.
Fast forward to 2009, four years after the final ruling of the lawsuit where we find New York City schools suffering through two rounds of mid-year budget cuts approved by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the forthcoming cuts in the state budget outlined by Governor David Patterson. Compounding the problem is the collapse of many financial institutions on Wall Street as well as rising unemployment and shrinking tax base adding to New York City’s dismal economic picture. Many other states such as Michigan with the loss of the automotive industry are looking at the same type of economic picture and have cut spending in education as well as other essential services. Voters in many states are also not eager to increase funding for schools in their state either. Some examples, voters in Maine did not approve a property tax cap which may result in state cuts in education funding and in Washington, Nevada, Arkansas and Missouri; voters went against bills which would give more money to their school districts. Oklahoma is one of the few states who actually voted to add money to their school districts by approving a state lottery system. “Education advocates say that funding defeats are not a signal that voters aren’t in favor of school spending, just that they are cautious about how money is raised”. (Silverman, p .16)
The Policy Information Center of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) released a report called, The State of Inequality, which analyzed data from the 1990 state-by-state assessment of mathematics achievement. Included in this data are results of other factors including spending inequities. Among their findings:
“After adjusting for cost of living differences, the average expenditures per student range from almost $7,000 in New York to $3,000 in Utah. States vary in both their wealth and their willingness to spend on education. Wyoming spends almost 8 percent of its personal income on education compared to New Hampshire’s 3 percent. When degree of effort is taken into account, state ranks change. New Jersey is second in absolute spending, but about in the middle when effort is calculated. Utah rises from last to the top tier”. (Lewis, p. 62)

After taking all of these factors into consideration, it is no wonder that many school systems in the United States are struggling to make ends meet so that they can provide their students with a quality education and why there is such a disparity.


References

Barton, P., Coley, R. J., Goertz, M. E. (1991) The State of Inequality. Report Number: PIC-STATEINEQ. The Educational Testing Service.

deMause, N. & Green, E. (2009) The Campaign for Fiscal Equity Lawsuit Was The Best Hope For City Schools. It Failed. The Village Voice. Retrieved from http://www.villagevoice.com/209-1-21/news/the-campaign-for-fiscal-equity-lawsuit-was-the-best-for-city-schools-it-failed/

Fields, C. (2005). Governor needs to move on school equity. New York Amsterdam News, 9, 6 (9), 13. Retrieved from http://search.ebsclhost.com.avoserv.library.fordham.edu

Lewis, A. (1992). Budgets and Inequity. Education Digest, 57 (6), 62. http://search.ebscohost.com

Silverman, F. (2005) Voters Send Mixed Messages On Funding Education. Update Department. District Administration. Retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=689