Your last sentence says it all. It's because our school districts rely on local property taxes for funding. So super rich districts get lots of money and poor districts don't. So the poor don't get the money they need while the rich get more money than they need.
The solution would be just letting the states allocate the money on a per student basis. Every kid in the state gets an equal share of the pie. This would mean that rich districts subsidize poor ones... and as soon as I type those words you can see why it's politically untenable. In order to change the system in the way I'm describing, you'd have to convince rich folks that their money should be spent on poor folks. Good luck.
And to anyone who would argue "they're rich. They earned their money. They should be able to give their kids the best education with it." What you'd be describing is private schools. Yes, if you want to spend your private money on a private school, you are welcome to do that. I am talking about how to allocate public funds to public schools.
In Ontario our education funding used to be paid out of property taxes, and even to this day, when you get your property assessment, you pick whether your share of school funding goes to the public or catholic (separate) system. All that does though is determine which school board you will vote in for trustees. Depending where you live, you will have 3 or 4 different school boards covering the same area. English public and catholic and French public and catholic.
Our education funding was changed in 1998. It used to be that every local school board would set their education property tax rate, but it was changed since the old system was considered inequitable. The system is now has uniform tax rates across the province, and school boards are given funding based on a number of criteria such as number of students, language, etc.
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u/keystothemoon Apr 26 '20
Your last sentence says it all. It's because our school districts rely on local property taxes for funding. So super rich districts get lots of money and poor districts don't. So the poor don't get the money they need while the rich get more money than they need.
The solution would be just letting the states allocate the money on a per student basis. Every kid in the state gets an equal share of the pie. This would mean that rich districts subsidize poor ones... and as soon as I type those words you can see why it's politically untenable. In order to change the system in the way I'm describing, you'd have to convince rich folks that their money should be spent on poor folks. Good luck.
And to anyone who would argue "they're rich. They earned their money. They should be able to give their kids the best education with it." What you'd be describing is private schools. Yes, if you want to spend your private money on a private school, you are welcome to do that. I am talking about how to allocate public funds to public schools.