Inequality and the looting of Tennessee schools

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Here’s a link to a new report about school funding formulas from the Center for American Progress. Among its key findings for the State of Missouri are:

  • The state of Missouri has a notable spending gap between low-poverty and high- poverty districts—a difference of almost $750 per pupil, after factoring in differences in costs.
  • After correcting for cost factors, the Missouri school finance formula has a decisive regressive tilt; despite this difference in per-pupil spending, significant state aid still flows to low-poverty districts.
  • With just a slightly higher property tax rate, the wealthiest towns are able to raise significantly more from property taxes than many less wealthy towns—in many cases more than $1,500 more per pupil. On top of this, wealthier towns raise on average $300 more per pupil from other kinds of taxes.

The report is not short, but it bears reading. It not only identifies states like Missouri whose school funding systems have a “decisive regressive tilt” but it also identifies states that are doing better. Read it all here.

Schools Matter is an excellent group blog about public education. The lead there this morning is about what’s presently happening in Tennessee. Here’s an excerpt:

Since Billionaire Bill Haslam chose one of Jeb Bush’s “Chiefs of Change” as his Education Commissioner, Kevin Huffman, or the former Mr. Michelle Rhee, has been working overtime to crush teachers’ academic freedom, due process, and job security in Tennessee. He has zealously pursued, too, the expansion of segregated corporate charters, and with the help of Haslam’s rubber stamp in the State Treasurer’s office, of all places, 17 new charters that the Memphis Board had rejected in the early Spring were approved on appeal in April of 2012.

The lead goes on to detail some of the corruption involved in this decision to authorize for profit charter schools and expresses hope that “TN Dems follow through to stop the bankrupting of public schools in Tennessee by Tennessee’s ‘Chief of Change,’ who represents, not Tennesseans, but the faction of the Billionaire Boys’ Club dedicated to privatizing education.” Read the entire lead here.