For Black Kids, Underfunded Public Schools Are Inequality Factories

By Joseph Williams Originally appeared in Word in Black For the Black community, education is considered an investment, the best way for Black children to get ahead in life, and a key to overcoming systemic racism. But a new study indicates states are short-changing the schools Black children attend, worsening the achievement gap.& A study titled “The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems” found that Black students are twice as likely as white students to attend school in districts with subpar government funding and more than three times as likely to live in “chronically underfunded” districts.& At the same time, researchers found that “educational opportunity is unequal in every state — that is, higher-poverty districts are funded less adequately than lower-poverty districts,” according to the report. The funding disparities are likely to further increase “opportunity gaps” between Black and white children, creating what one researcher called “inequality factories.” And the disparities are occurring as school districts set academic achievement standards that children in underfunded districts often struggle to meet.& The findings, compiled by a team of researchers from the Albert Shanker Institute, the University of Miami, and Rutgers University, evaluated the K-12 school finance systems of all 50...