Unfairness told in students’ words

Pennsylvania is known for having one of the most inequitable public school funding systems in the nation.

Education opportunities and resources often have more to do with a student’s zip code than anything resembling equity.

But do students and parents know this?

Journalism students at Ursinus College, supported by a grant from Project Pericles, dedicated a semester to interviewing students at Montgomery County public high schools to find out.

Most of the stories included in this series come from that project, and you can watch a video of students talking about their schools at https:// youtu.be/34MpZ3YMzxE. These quotes come from interviews with other Montgomery County students and graduates.

“I feel that it’s not fair. We wish we had the same items, I feel that [other schools] have a lot of things that we don’t. They get a lot more money.”

— Ariana Torres, senior at Pottstown High School

••• “There was always this underlying stress. We didn’t have enough money to do some things, our textbooks were very old. I just feel like it isn’t very, I don’t know, it doesn’t really get the job done. Talking about history and it’s so outdated or even science classes there have been new theories you know or whatever.”

— Emily Weber, Pottstown High School graduate

• • • “We’re lucky enough to be in a situation where our school has the money to afford and produce live streams for most of our sports events and we can get a lot of attendance on that from not only parents but students as well who want to spectate the game.” — Michael Fath, senior at Wissahickon High School

• • •

“As a parent I can see that Pottstown definitely lacks in resources. Compared to surrounding districts I know back in March when we went virtual some school districts already had school-issued laptops or Chromebooks and Pottstown didn’t because we… couldn’t afford it, so we had to find funding really quick and try to get the laptops out.

The kids didn’t know how to use them. Parents didn’t know how to use them, so it took us longer to switch to that world than other districts because they were already doing it.”

••• “They just finished a brand new weight room addition to expand the old weight room. It is two floors, with every weight personalized with a Ram and a SpringFord logo. They even hired a weight coach. It was insane.” — Claire Vance, SpringFord High School graduate

•••

“Yes, I do consider myself at a large advantage because my school has the means to offer everyone an opportunity to get involved”