More = Equal
Dear Leading Ladies,
The several positive comments we received about last week’s letter motivated us to explore the topic of educational inequity, and particularly, the concept of education debt. Underserved schools need more than equal funding to make up for centuries of substandard education and opportunities.
As we discussed in our last Newsletter, schools in our country receive unequal funding, in some states because of real estate taxes, in others because of additional public monies and donors in wealthy communities.
The result? Students who go to underfunded schools more often have fewer resources, larger class sizes, less access to extracurricular activities, and older equipment than their wealthier neighbors. And those students in underfunded schools are predominantly Black, LatinX, or Native American. In fact, "For every student enrolled, the average nonwhite school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district," according to a 2019 report by the nonprofit EdBuild. (Read more in “Why White Schools Have So Much More Money.”)
Educational researcher Gloria Ladson-Phillips acknowledges the unequal funding of schools as problematic, but proposes a broader concept and solution. She points to generations of “historical, economical, sociopolitical, and moral decisions and policies that characterize our society” and have created an education debt.
The historical debt, Ladson-Phillips explains, accrued beginning with the denial of education to slaves and native Americans, then the substandard education offered to freed slaves in the South after the Civil War that was only slightly better in the North. Segregated schools throughout the country provided poor books and learning opportunities until Brown vs. Board of Education. What we have had since is only marginally better in many urban areas.
Ladson-Phillips describes the economic debt as “sobering.” The disparities of funding of schools for White and Black students is not new and “present a telling story of the value we place on the education of different groups of children.” The amount of funding in schools rises with the number of White students, and “this pattern of inequitable funding has existed over centuries.” The other aspect of the economic debt, Ladson-Phillips points out, is earning potential. The more schooling people have, the more they can earn and provide for their families. Centuries of substandard education leads to an increasing wealth gap and a perpetuating achievement gap resulting in an ever enlarging education gap.
For Ladson-Phillips, the sociopolitical gap reflects “the degree to which communities of color are excluded from the civic process.” Until the Voting Acts Right of 1965, Black, Latino, and Native communities “had little or no access to the franchise so they had no true legislative representation.” Consequently, “families of color have regularly been excluded from the decision-making mechanisms that should ensure that their children receive a quality education.” Think parent-teacher organizations, school councils, etcetera. Add this to more limited access to lawyers and legislators “that has kept them from accumulating the kinds of political capital that their White, middle-class counterparts have.” Certainly, the Civil Rights Act and affirmative action, which, in fact, has benefitted women more than POC, have made some impact on the sociopolitical debt, but hardly enough.
Finally, Ladson-Phillips points to a moral gap, what she describes as the “disparity between what we know is right and what we actually do.” She quotes President Lyndon Johnson in his address at Howard University in 1965 as saying, “You cannot take a man who has been in chains for 300 years, remove the chains, take him to the starting line and tell him to run the race, and think that you are being fair."
Ladson-Phillips makes it clear that the education debt can only be solved with more money being put into underserved schools rather than equal funds. Others concur and also believe the solution requires a holistic approach that looks at the social and the political. It needs to consider neighborhoods, mental and physical health, conscious and unconscious biases, and centuries of denial, exclusion, and pain. But, indeed, there are solutions.
In a 2017 policy brief by the members of the Race, Diversity, and Educational Cluster Division of the Haas Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, the authors maintain that “social, political, and economic patterns and indeed, structural racism, impact schools, and their students, helping to explain the inequitable schooling students and their families continue to experience.” Yet, they see possibilities for improvement through:
Educational policies that “account for and address the social impact of social and economic factors on students and communities”
“Allocation of stable and adequate resources”
“Broader research” that will lead to “more sound policy and implementation”
“Professional development” that will lead to “more culturally responsive learning environments”
What seems most clear is that equality in education must begin with an unequal influx of money into schools that serve BlPOC. Those schools need MORE money, not less, than those of their white neighbors, in order to make up for centuries of neglect. And, yes, education debt may be considered part of what many define as reparations entitled to Blacks and indigenous people in our country. But the larger topic of reparations is a topic for another time.
Along with the legislative help this effort will take, there are several organizations that are helping underserved students and their schools. They request both donations and volunteers.
Stay safe, be well. There is hope!
Therese
Judy
Mary
Kim
Leading Ladies Executive Team
LeadingLadiesVote.org