[Mpls] 50 year anniversary of Brown v.s. Board of Education - How does Minneapolis measure up today?

[David Brauer]

On May 17, 2004, at 9:59 PM, Sean Ryan wrote:
>
> ...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