Do TUSD funding formulas discriminate against schools with low income students?

by David Safier

Based on TUSD proposed funding formulas Board President Mark Stegeman included in his recent constituent newsletter, schools with lower income students will receive less money to spend on teachers than schools with higher income students. (Download School budget formulas 2012-13)

This is a serious equity issue which is not exclusive to TUSD. It happens in school district funding formulas across the country and has been the subject of a great deal of serious examination. It will take some explaining, so if you're interested, bear with me.

There are two basic ways to fund teachers at individual schools.

1. Make sure all schools have a more-or-less equal number of staff members per student. That would mean, for example, every elementary school has one teacher for every 26 students.
2. Make sure each school has the same funding per student for teachers. That would mean allocating, for example, $2000 per student to hire teachers. [I imagine the actual figure is higher than $2,000, but the idea is the same.]

The first funding formula creates equality in the teacher/student ratio. The second creates a dollar-for-dollar equality.

It looks like TUSD goes for the former: making sure each school has more-or-less the same ratio of teachers to students. That usually means, schools with higher income students receive more funding than schools with lower income students, because the former tend to have more experienced teachers — and therefore teachers with higher salaries — than the latter. Here's why.

In general, teachers tend to stay longer at the schools with the "better" — meaning higher income — students, because, let's face it, they're easier to teach than lower income students. There tend to be fewer family problems, fewer discipline problems, lower absentee rates, higher motivation, etc. Teachers tend to leave schools with the more difficult — meaning lower income — students because of the problems which make it so much harder and more frustrating to teach there. Some teachers at schools with lower income students make yearly transfer requests until they finally move to the schools with "better" students. Others simply give up and leave the profession. In each case, new teachers are brought in to replace them.

Consequently, schools with low income students have, on average, less experienced teachers than schools with higher income students. And, since less experienced teachers are also lower on the pay scale, that means schools with lower income students spend less money to reach that 26-to-1 ratio than schools with higher income students.

(Continue reading below the fold.)

Less experienced teachers are often less effective, especially in their first few years, and especially, according to some studies, with the most difficult-to-reach students. That means students at schools with lots of low-experience teachers tend to receive less effective instruction. When you add in the fact that schools with higher income students get the pick of the best teachers (because schools with "better students" are more desirable, they usually get the most applicants to choose from), lower experience is often compounded with teachers who may be less skilled. The result can be lower quality education for those students who need it most.

[Note: This should not be read as a blanket criticism of teachers at lower income schools, many of whom are among the most talented and dedicated anywhere. I'm just being honest about the way the world actually works.]

What if TUSD did not discriminate financially against schools with lower income students and gave every school the same amount of teacher money per student? Schools with less experienced teachers would be able to stretch their money farther, possibly hiring a few extra teachers to lower the teacher/student ratio, possibly hiring more aides, possibly spending more on supplementary materials and technology. In other words, the equitable distribution of funds would create a balancing effect, a compensating effect which could turn having a less experienced staff into an opportunity instead of a liability.

If I have misread the funding proposal linked to at the top, please set me straight. Otherwise, I believe this is a serious issue TUSD needs to address if it honestly has a commitment to educational equity.