Finally, Democratic candidates talk about education in a debate. But nobody raised this key issue. - The Washington Post

Finally, Democratic candidates talk about education in a debate. But nobody raised this key issue. - The Washington Post

Finally, Democratic candidates talk about education in a debate. But nobody raised this key issue.
Read the entire discussion on schools

Finally, after three debates among Democratic presidential candidates with scarcely a question about education, a moderator, Linsey Davis of ABC News, raised the issue Thursday night. She asked some good questions — even if some candidates tried to skirt them or stated as fact things that may not, in fact, be true.

It wasn’t a particularly revelatory discussion, with candidates generally sticking to their talking points. But it did touch on some key subjects, including school segregation, charter schools, teacher pay, student debt and universal pre-K.

Some important issues were briefly raised, such as when Julián Castro, the former housing and urban development secretary in the Obama administration, said that improving schools cannot be divorced from housing, health care and social policy: “Our schools are segregated because our neighborhoods are segregated.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) raised another key issue when he noted that the United States has one of the world’s highest child poverty rates, which is a factor in academic achievement.

But the one thing that nobody discussed onstage is what many public education activists see as the root of public education’s problems: the funding system, which relies heavily, though not exclusively, on property taxes. The obvious result is that poorer neighborhoods have fewer funds and more cash-strapped schools. Federal money intended to help close the gap hasn’t come close.

According to the Learning Policy Institute, a California nonprofit think tank founded by Linda Darling-Hammond, a highly respected educator and researcher who is chairwoman of the California Board of Education: “The highest-spending districts in the United States spend nearly 10 times more than the lowest-spending, with large differentials both across and within states.” In most states, it says, children who live in low-income neighborhoods attend the schools most deprived of resources.

It said in this 2019 report:

On average, school districts serving the largest concentrations of students of color receive approximately $1,800 less per student in state and local funding than those serving the fewest students of color, and the differentials are even greater within states. For example, in Illinois, per-pupil funding ranged from $8,500 to $32,000 in 2016, with suburban districts in Cook County outspending nearby Chicago by more than $10,000 per pupil.

The great divide in funding comes largely from reliance on local property taxes. Districts with higher property values bring in more property tax revenues and provide correspondingly higher funding for schools than poorer districts do. States typically offset these disparities to some extent, but rarely provide an equitable system that can respond to student needs. Funding CONTINUE READING: Finally, Democratic candidates talk about education in a debate. But nobody raised this key issue. - The Washington Post