Lawyers Weigh In On
The Lack of Federal Oversight
of Discriminatory State & Local
School Funding Systems
Luis
Ángel Pérez
Writing4light
Educator
& Advocate
June 2017
“… Four Attorneys …
Come At School Finance …”
“Today, I have the
opportunity to moderate a very important conversation
about a subject that
gets little attention but it impacts everyone, and that’s
School Finance.”
“… I have an
opportunity to speak … with
four attorneys who
come at school finance from different stand points.”
Gerard
Robinson,
Moderator;
Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute of Education Policy
Studies;
Former
Education Commissioner of Florida,
2011-12;
Former
Education Secretary of Virginia,
2010-11.
February
13, 2017
“Unfortunately,
We’ve Sacrificed
Generations
of Children
at
the Altar of State & Local Control.”
“… school funding is
the foundation of the
opportunities that are provided in the classroom.”
“… in the United States,
somehow,
we’ve gotten to a
place where we’ve decided that it is just fine
for some kids to get
a world class education
and others to get a
really poor education, poor quality education.”
“… I want to talk
about …”
“How the law has
contributed to that?”
“What the law can do
about it? … ”
“… some ideas on shifting
our understanding of education
and the role of the
Federal Government
and State Governments
… within education.”
“… one of the things
that a recent commission, ...”
“… The Excellent &
Equity Commission, …”
“… found in a 2013
report, … by a bipartisan commission,
commissioned by
President Obama, and it …”
“… studied issues of
education & equity
in the United States,
…”
“… one of the things
it said is that …”
“… the United States
& families are burden by
the broken system of
school funding in the United
States.”
“Why
is it broken?”
“… schools are funded,
in part, through Property Taxes.”
“… that imbeds a
certain inequality into funding
because of disparate
property values…”
“… that’s just one of the challenges within
the education funding…”
“State Funding Formulas
don’t adequately
address the disparities that they create
particularly for
little income children.”
“How funding is distributed
in light of poverty?”
“… what research tells us, and this is a
consistent finding,
is that low income children need about 40% more
resources
to compete on a level plane field with … their middle income peers.”
“This 40% number has been confirmed in research
but also the Federal Government uses this number for
handing out funding for poverty in a number of grants that it does.”
“… so if you look at
funding, the question is …”
“In light of this
research,
do the States address
this in our
funding formulas?”
“… let’s look at what
we can see.”
“… these are the
States that have Regressive-Funding
formulas.”
“… regressive means
they give less funding to districts of high
poverty.”
“So for example, in
our neighboring State of Virginia,
they give 86 cents for
every dollar they give
to middle income
students.”
“So, this is 21
States that have regressive funding”.
“If you look at the
States like … [audio disrupted] …
about the same funding for low income and high income districts.
These are the 15
States that have
Flat-Funding.”
“… if you look at Progressive-Funding,
you have only 12
States.”
“This is 2013-14 data.
That’s the most recent
data available.”
“… here’s a map with
all of these States … put together but …
the challenge that
you see from this map is that …”
“Much of school funding does not address the fact that
we know from research that
low income children and districts
need additional funding and
funding formulas aren’t designed to address that.”
“What Else Is
Happening With Funding Formulas?”
“…
School Funding Formulas Are Not Tailored Actually
To
Provide The Funding Necessary To Achieve
The
Goals of The Education System.”
“Well, one of the
things that school finance litigation,
over the past, more than, 4 years,
has revealed is that …”
“… school funding formulas are not tailored actually
to provide the funding necessary to achieve
the goals of the education system.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, often times
school funding and
the amount that’s given
is really subject to Political Bargaining
where you have an amount in the budget allocated for education,
the lawmakers … barter over how much each district is going to get, …
and that’s the amount that’s
given to the district.”
“The challenge with
that … as you might see,
is that we have a system of State Standards in every
State …”
“… set aside whether
it’s the Common-Core Standards,
the Standard of
Learning in Virginia,
or any other such
Standard …”
“… but
the
funding formula is often not tied to
how much
it cost to get all children to succeed
on those
Standards.”
“And so that, of
course,
sets-up children to not have the resources that they need
to pass the benchmarks for proficiency
that are established in State Standards.”
“So that’s another
challenge with them.”
“So, even if you have a progressive State
but you have very low funding
that of course is not going to provide adequate resources
to learn what is in the State’s Standards.”
“And then finally, we
have …”
“Insufficient
Oversight of State Funding Systems.”
“What does that mean?”
“… that we don’t have
enough oversight
of the systems to
make sure that the money we are putting in
is being spent
efficiently. And that’s important as well.”
“… are we spending
that money wisely
to get the results
that we need?”
“So, there are a number of weaknesses
within school funding system, the question is …
How have we, how has
this arisen?
What are the causes?”
“So, … San
Antonio Independent versus Rodriguez
was a case that was decided in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court.
It’s brought in Texas … by American
Mexican families who said,
‘the low funding that
we receive in our districts
violates the United
States Constitution
and particularly the
equal protection clause.’”
“They argued that
there’s a fundamental right to education
and that their right
was being violated by the low funding
that they got and the
very poor opportunities they were given.”
“… the United States Supreme Court
rejected that argument
and said that, ‘the United
States Constitution
does not guarantee your right to education’
and that instead that this was, ‘an issue that
should be left to the States.’”
“That, ‘State & Local control was an important
value in American Education;
we must allow the States to work on this issue.’”
“Even though the Supreme Court said,
‘We do acknowledge that there is significant inequality and we do,
we are, sort of, encouraging the
States to work on it,
but we don’t feel that we are the experts to address questions …’
… that just Mr. Robinson
referenced which is …
‘Does
money matter for education?’”
“Who should answer
that question?”
“The court said,
‘We are not the people to answer that question.’”
“In addition,
the court also
acknowledged that
issues of Federalism were at play here
which is
it did not want, sort
of, Federal take-over
of all the State
funding Systems.”
“So instead,
‘we’re going to not upset this Federal-State Balance
and allow the State to address this issue.’”
“What has happened?”
“Well, more than 40
years later, you can see,
certainly there’s
been some progress from School Finance Litigation.”
“Many school funding
systems are more equitable today
than they were when
the Rodriguez litigation was brought.”
“However,
what you also see is
that there’s a …”
“Lack of
Federal Accountability
for
Equitable Funding.”
“For funding that
says …”
“… we need to address
how much kids need
and make sure those
kids get it.”
“And because of that
…”
“We have
no way to make sure that
States
are going to move in the direction of
providing
more equitable funding.”
“… What happens when
you
Close the Federal
Courthouse Doors
to School Funding
Litigation?”
“… what has happened
is that
State Courts have not been an effective mechanism
for making sure that all kids
get the resources they need to achieve.”
“We need to think
about
reshaping our
understanding of
Education Federalism.”
“So, what does that
mean?”
“We have a … view in
American society that
State & Local
control is one of the paramount values.”
“Unfortunately –
we’ve sacrificed
generations of children
at the altar of State
& Local control.”
“We have said –
that is far more
important than
these children
getting a great education.”
“We need to make sure
that
we have some
partnership between
the Federal Government
and the State &
Local Government
to make sure that
kids are getting what
they need.”
“And we need to draw
upon the strengths
in State Governments
and Local Governments but …”
“We also need not be
afraid
of the strength that
the Federal Government brings.”
“Whether that be
additional funding,
whether it be
research assistance,
whether it be
technical assistance …”
“… the Federal
Government has a lot of resources
that the States would
greatly benefit for …”
“… if we weren’t so
afraid of having them have
greater involvement
with education …”
“… in ways that still
allow the States to serve
as the mechanisms for
innovation, experimentation.”
“And so, I think we
need to
challenge our
understanding of Education Federalism,
shift to a greater
& stronger partnership
that allows for the
Federal & State Governments
to work together in
ways that build on
the strengths and
needs, …”
“… and that aren’t so
… afraid of having
the Federal Government
involved in Education.”
Kimberly
Robinson,
Professor
of Law at the University
of Richmond;
Practiced
Law in the Private Sector;
Former
U.S.
Department of Education Attorney;
Graduate
of Harvard Law School;
Former
Clerk for the 9th Circuit Court;
Co-Author
of book titled
The
Enduring Legacy of Rodriguez:
Creating New Pathways to Equal Educational Opportunity
February
13, 2017
“The Best Way to Strengthen
Public Schools
Is To
Strengthen Public Schools.”
“This notion of
education being the great equalizer
is such a farce
when you look at how
unequally and inequitably
our schools are
funded in the States
and across the
country.”
“We need a system
that allows
the competition that
we talk about in rhetoric
to be real.”
“You can’t expect
students from some School Districts
to compete with other
students in other School Districts
when they are
provided …”
“… inadequately
prepared school teachers,
when the States and
Federal Governments push
these temporary
faculty agencies to try and provide relief
for a couple of years
before those teachers leave those students,
and when you just
totally divorce the funding system
from research and
policy.”
“Market based reforms …”
“Have not led
to improved educational opportunities.”
“It has not led
to improved learning opportunities.”
“It has led to
improve earnings from private corporations.”
“It has led to
improved salaries for administrators
heading non-profit
organizations,
heading some of these
Charter Schools, …”
“But it has not
led to improved learning & opportunity.”
“The best way to
strengthen Public Schools
is to strengthen
Public Schools.”
David
Hinojosa,
National
Director of Policy for the Intercultural Development Research Association,
Former
Staff Attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense Educational Fund,
Graduate
of the University of Texas
Law School.
February
13, 2017
The
above depicts some of what was asserted by experts during a conference titled,
School
Finance & Opportunity: The Law and The Road Ahead,
hosted
by the American Enterprise Institute,
(February 13, 2017).
To
learn more or watch the entire conference, visit their website
or
click on one of the links provided below.
American Enterprise Institute,
(AEI), February 13, 2017.
C-SPAN
Let’s
End Abuse of Power In Our Schools
Awareness Is Power So
Please Continue To Follow
Luis Ángel Pérez,
Degrees in Psychology & Education,
Mental Health, Social Services,
Public School Science & Mathematics,
Dual Language Middle School Seventh
& Eighth Grades,
Elementary School First & Fourth
Grades,
Educator & Advocate.
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