What’s Working in Education: Is the United States’ Antiquated School Funding Model to Blame for its Achievement Gap?

Image courtesy Tom Woodward, via flickr.com

PaperSeed’s “What’s Working in Education” series spotlights different countries around the world to look at the unique things they are doing right. While no approach is perfect, we are hoping to root out some common practices that can and perhaps should be applied to schools in countries that don’t perform as well.

This week, we are taking a closer look at the United States. As one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the U.S. is in a unique position when it comes to its successes and failures in education. According to OECD data, the U.S. spends more per student, per year than South Korea, Canada, Japan, and Finland; a total of more than $11,000 per student, per year[1]. With such high numbers one would assume that the U.S. education system would be top notch. However, the United States falls far behind top PISA performers, having scored 24th on reading, 26th on science, and a staggering 36th on math achievement on the 2015 PISA test. While the PISA is not the be all and end all of success indicators, it's troubling that a country with such wealth and resources can’t crack the PISA’s top 10. So, why are students in the U.S. falling behind?

If the United States has so much money to spend on education, and IS spending so much money on education, why aren’t the results better? The easy answer is that money can’t account for quality, but the issue goes deeper than that. Some of the cost can be traced to wasteful spending at the district level, though how much and why remains murky. Stories often surface in local news of mismanaged budgets at the district level, inflated administrative budgets, or overspending on unnecessary amenities and additions. Attempts to mitigate this kind of wasteful spending came to a head in the vastly unpopular No Child Left Behind bill from the early 2000’s, which threatened to cut off funding to schools who consistently under-performed.

A more tangible cause for the United States’ low PISA scores is widespread income inequality, which directly translates to inadequately funded schools. In the United States, school districts are funded primarily (to the tune of 92%[2] to be exact) by local property taxes, a holdover from the U.S.’s early model for public education. As such, the current system the United States has in place allocates funds to public K-12 schools disproportionately, with high poverty districts spending 15.6% less than low poverty districts, according to the U.S. Department of Education. As a result, the United States is facing the challenge of an ever-widening achievement gap, directly related to where a child grows up. Children in wealthy areas typically enjoy schools with plenty of amenities, well-funded extracurriculars, tech labs, and engaged Parent-Teacher Organizations to conduct extra fundraising for all kinds of things from art programs to field trips. Conversely, children in less wealthy districts often have to make-do with underpaid teachers (not to mention high teacher turnover, as teachers working in districts with lower wages are more likely to quit[3]) and severely run-down facilities.

Some of the best teachers in the U.S. are incentivized to move out of the classroom and into administrative positions in order to advance and earn more. At present, teacher compensation is based on experience and education, with a newly credentialed teacher making an average of $38,617[4] per year to start (average across the states for the 2016-2017 school year), and earning slightly more each year (or “step”) on a fixed district salary schedule. As a side note, these salary schedules vary widely depending on state and district, with schools in wealthier suburban areas offering much more competitive compensation than those in rural and urban districts, which often means that schools in wealthier areas get better qualified, higher quality teachers. The only other ways for teachers to earn more are to either invest in professional development and higher degrees (a K-12 teacher with a master’s degree can earn substantially more than one with a bachelor’s) or move into administration (vice principal, principal, etc.) Unfortunately, while other career paths have natural opportunities for career advancement, a teacher who wants to move up or earn more has limited options, none of them in the classroom.

Image courtesy Presby PHotos, via Flickr.com

The United States does have some impressive numbers when it comes to tertiary education, with a total of 44% of U.S. adults having obtained some form of post-secondary education. Most of these adults—twenty two percent—have a bachelor’s or equivalent degree (approximately four years of full time, post-secondary study.) Others go to trade schools, or gain other types of credentials through local junior colleges. However, post-secondary education is becoming more and more necessary for U.S. adults to obtain gainful employment, with many entry-level positions requiring at least a four-year degree in order for candidates to be considered. What this means is, while the U.S. has high tertiary achievement, those who are unable to obtain tertiary education due to financial hardship, or long-term disenfranchisement from education due to having grown up in a high poverty district, are at a harsh economic disadvantage.

Vida verde students show off a play structure they constructed for vida verde's baby goats.

While PaperSeed’s global focus is on ending extreme poverty, our approach in the U.S. is more nuanced, and often meant to address the unique equity issues U.S. students face. Our support for enrichment programs for low-income students can be seen in our work with Vida Verde Nature Education, which offers free overnight nature education field trips to students in the San Francisco Bay Area. While many Bay Area school districts are in affluent areas buoyed by the tech boom, there are numerous communities being left behind by the widening income gap and ever-increasing cost of living in the area. As a result, children who live mere miles from the Pacific Ocean and a handful of beautiful state parks may never have gotten to see any of California’s natural beauty up close and personal. PaperSeed also focuses on arts enrichment programs like Project Music, whose after school music programs are provided free of charge to students in underserved communities in Connecticut.

The United States is facing myriad issues when it comes to education, from funding sources and equity to teacher compensation. Other issues have arisen as well, complicating the matter with affluent families opting to put their children in private or charter schools. Over the past months, debates over school choice have grown heated, and teachers in many states where compensation is lowest and facilities are at their worst have staged dramatic walk-outs. For now, U.S. nonprofits do a tremendous job helping to bridge the funding gaps between wealthy and underfunded districts, but it is our hope that policy will change for the better and the United States will provide all children with the education they need to step into their full potential.

[1] OECD (2018), Public spending on education (indicator). doi: 10.1787/f99b45d0-en (Accessed on 30 January 2018)

[2] United States Department of Education, “The Federal Role in Education” https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html (accessed on 30 January 2018)

[3] Learning Policy Institute, “Solving the Teacher Shortage: How to Attract and Retain Excellent Educators” https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/solving-teacher-shortage-brief (accessed on 5 June 2018)

[4] National Education Association, “2016-2017 Average Starting Teacher Salaries by State”, http://www.nea.org/home/2016-2017-average-starting-teacher-salary.html (Accessed on 5 June 2018).