Michael writes: > I never make the assumption that rich neighborhoods spent > more on schools (for all I know they could spend it on > indoor hockey arenas instead of housing), I was just proposing > that it was possible that rich neighborhoods might be in a better > position to. I was really rising the question about the equality of > school funding which has been discussed in the courts. I think > that in California that the State Supreme Court ruled that all > public school districts must spend the same amount on education > per student and they then required a pool of state funds rather > than unequal district budgets. I tend to agree with this principle > and I am questioning whether the ability of neighborhoods to > disproportionately support community schools violates the > concept of equal allocations per student, and in turn results > in differential educational and career outcomes. I'd like > to hear your response to this question: Does ability of > neighborhoods to disproportionately support community schools > violate the concept of equal protection for students, and in > turn result in differential educational and career outcomes?
I'm saying I don't think that ability exists, at least based on NRP, our starting point. Remember, NRP is an extremely "progressive" program - in the classic definition of the word - poor neighborhoods get more funding, per capita, than wealthy ones. So without evidence that disproportionate spending occurs - and at least structurally, that funding is progressively weighted the opposite way, toward poor areas - I'm not much worried about the problem through NRP. Now, that said, I DO worry about things such as parent fundraisers affecting school funding imbalances. My kid's school, Burroughs, is very good at raising private money and bless them for it....but, every time I buy a roll of wrapping paper or contribute to the school through a book sale or read-a-thon, I wonder who's providing equivalent money to schools in poorer areas. THAT said, my friend Lynnell Mickelsen would remind me that in Minneapolis, schools with high-poverty student bodies ALREADY get much more per student than schools in areas such as mine. AND, it looks like one of the first things the Minneapolis Public School District will cut is so-called "impact aid" which provides money to schools with wealthier student bodies (a mild balancer to federal and state funding to poor schools)...so while schools may have less money in the next few years, it's quite possible that the funding gap will WIDEN in favor of schools in poorer areas. David Brauer King Field TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
