Simple Math

If bad teachers were the only trouble with education, then the millions and millions of dollars spent on tests and formulae to rate teachers against those tests would have gotten us a lot farther. No, the trouble with education, as Valarie Strauss’ recent blog entry outlines for us, isn’t the trouble with education. It’s poverty. The focus of the conversation about education reform is at times myopic; students + bad teachers = education crisis. Or perhaps it is termed like this: students + great teacher = high achievement. We all know there are a few variables missing; Strauss’ article highlights of one of the largest.

Students’ socio-economic status effects their lives in deep and complex ways (Strauss lays these very clearly) that permeate what happens at school, no matter how many highly qualified and committed teachers are at the helm. I’d like to take this a bit further and say that a large part of reason for this—beyond the psychological impact of poverty on those living in it—remains the inherently unfair way that education is funded in this country. Public schools are in and of themselves community resources; but they are also the products of community resources. And it is no secret or mystery as to why schools in poorer communities are generally lower-performing than the school on the “other side of the track.” Yet, there seems to be a collective head scratching about how we can address this problem.

In order to find solutions for our schools, we need to get serious about making education spending totally and completely equitable. Equitable is not the same as equal. This nuance has been bandied about in rhetoric for years. Now, however, with the public’s attention more attuned to education and issues of education finance because of the larger economic crisis, we have a real opportunity to make equitable (and not to mention simpler) funding for schools a priority.