NAACP rips racial bias in school spending
POTTSTOWN >> The recent revelation that the state’s educational funding system favors districts with a greater white population has angered the membership of the local chapter of the NAACP.
That was evident at a recent meeting at the Ricketts Community Center where members of a fair education funding advocacy group reviewed their information for the membership.
Representatives from POWER (Philadelphia Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild) were on hand to show a video explaining their findings and to make a plea for more involvement.
“There is a clear racial bias in schools funding in Pennsylvania,” Graie Barasch-Hagan told the group. “The more black your school district is, the less money you will get compared to a comparable white district.”
Barasch-Hagan, an organizer with POWER, is referring to findings by a researcher for POWER and the Education Law Center, both of which found after an analysis of state education data, that the current system sends more money to whiter districts on a per-student basis — even when the level of poverty is similar.
In a wide-ranging discussion about state funding, property taxes, the feeble funding provided through the fair-funding formula, and the many ways that low-income communities of color are short-changed by Pennsylvania’s education funding system — recognized as one of the most unfair in the nation — the evident anger and desire to take effective action grew.
“So our property is worth less, so our children’s schools are getting less money. We are putting a price tag on our children’s education based on property values?” said Johnny Corson, president of the Pottstown Chapter of the NAACP. “That’s not fair.”
“In some of those wealthier districts, you have 15 kids to on teacher, you do not have that in urban schools,” said Tracey Lawson, a member of the local executive committee.
She suggested a petition drive to force the disparity being addressed in Harrisburg.
Pottstown School Board Member Emanuel Wilkerson suggested the Pottstown NAACP chapter establish a legislative advisory committee to keep the members informed and up to speed as the state budget process moves forward.
And it is not just the local NAACP chapter that is upset.
“Pennsylvania has the largest disparity of this nature in education funding in the United States. And, shamelessly, by their votes, state legislators continuously make it clear that the chapter’s value of Pennsylvania’s children depends of the color of their skin or the income of their parents,” Joan Evelyn Duvall-Flynn, president of the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference of Branches, wrote in a statement provided to Digital First Media.
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