...Sayles Belton had a good idea when she dropped the whole super-bus program and brought back neighborhood schools. Now if they could only be equally funded and have access to the same programs and amenities [ -Drive around and compare the Mpls. High schools- which ones look the best and have the best facilities? You'll see a pattern emerge pretty quickly-]
MONEY is the great equalizer, not school buses.
I can't speak to high-school-building quality (though the North side has four new elementary buildings to Southwest's one).
However, it is a common misconception that schools with more students in poverty receive less funding. They don't. They receive MORE.
Consider 2003-04 per-pupil aid and % in poverty for randomly selected elementary schools:
Armatage - $6,258 per kid with 35% qualifying for free/reduced lunch Bancroft - $7,029, 78% Barton - $5,010, 20% Bethune - $8,616, 91% Bryn Mawr - $7,786, 76% Burroughs - $4,881, 24% Cooper - $8,298, 75% Dowling - $8,399, 39% Hale - $4,991, 24% Hall, $8,577, 89%
So a high-poverty school such as Hall gets $3,500 per kid more, or 71 percent more, than low-poverty Hale. High-poverty Bethune gets almost $4,000 per kid more, or 76 percent more, than low-poverty Burroughs.
For high schools: Edison - $7,162, 78% Henry - $6,294, 76% North - $6,864, 80% Roosevelt - $6,908, 71% South - $5,030, 39% Southwest - $5,561, 37% Washburn - $5,430, 53%
The gap is less dramatic here because of a smaller variation in poverty rates. Higher-poverty Edison receives $1,600 more per kid, or 30 percent more, than lower-poverty Southwest.
Several days ago, Keith Reitman suggested that Mpls should walk its legislative talk and do more to fund its own poor areas more generously than rich ones. As the school data indicates, we do. (By the way, Keith, the city's NRP formula is also progressive, with poorer neighborhoods getting 2-to-3 times as much per-capita as richer neighborhoods.)
Bottom line: we don't have separate-but-equal ... we have separate-and-unequal-tilted-toward-poverty.
I don't want to suggest the result is fair. Schools with more kids in poverty should arguably get EVEN MORE of the pot. (Ditto for neighborhoods; I personally favor an NRP formula even more steeply raked toward high-poverty areas.) As others have noted, there may be non-monetary gaps that harm education in high-poverty schools (such as teacher experience).
But when we're talking cash, we should ask whether the system should be made MORE progressive than it already is, rather than suggesting that higher-poverty schools get less money.
David Brauer
Kingfield
Resident of Foofytown (although did I tell you about the rolling gun battle a block away two weeks ago?) and parent of a kid in a low-poverty school
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