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 chapter’s 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 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.
“Pennsylvania’s school funding framework remains inequitable even after the adoption of the Fair Funding Formula. The ‘fair’ distribution of funds only applies to increases in money for education in the state budget, and as such, the extreme gap between underfunded students and extremely well-funded students continues,” Duvall-Flynn wrote.
“Only new money is being distributed fairly,” said the Rev. David Tatgenhorst, pastor of St. Luke United Methodist Church in Bryn Mawr and a POWER organizer. “The problem is, there isn’t much new money.”
Because only “new” money is distributed to Pennsylvania schools through the fair funding formula — which takes into account, things like community wealth, district demographics and regional cost of living — only 6 percent of state education funding is “fair.”
That works out to about $354 million of the $5.9 billion Pennsylvania spends on education.
It is a problem created in Harrisburg and one that can only be solved there, said Will Fuller, a suburban organizer for POWER.
“We need to amplify this problem on the state level if we want it addressed,” said Fuller, who said his organization is mobilized through houses of faith and is trying to move beyond Philadelphia into the rest of the state to raise awareness of this problem.
Matt Green, a local Realtor, said the gerrymandering of state legislative districts means legislators represent both rich and poor districts, and so do not need to be responsive to complaints from poorer districts.
Pottstown is represented in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by both state Rep. Tom Quigley, R-146th Dist. and state Rep. Tim Hennessey, a Republican whose 26th District includes a portion of the borough’s southern area and is otherwise located entirely across the Schuylkill River in Chester County. He has been in office for 24 years.
To make changes in education funding in Harrisburg, will take power, said Barasch-Hagans.
“The world is made in the image of powerful people. Powerful people influence and give money toward things that will make the world look the way they want it to look,” he said.
“Things don’t change unless we are powerful enough to make them change,” Barasch-Hagans said.