Persistent Funding Gaps in Michigan K-12 Schools

Almost a year to the date, I posted on the continuing inequity of K-12 school funding in Michigan. I have since retired but you can go back and read (or re-read) that post at:

One More Time on Equity in School Funding

It is a fairly comprehensive post yet updating it with school funding data from this current school year would not make any difference. The inequity persists.

"Overall, the funding inequities we documented in the 2015 report appear slightly smaller, but persist. Compared to 2015, the national funding gap between high and low poverty districts decreased slightly — by 3 percentage points — from 10 percent to 7 percent. The national funding gap between districts with the highest and lowest percentages of students of color went from 15 percent to 13 percent, representing a 2 percentage point drop." ~ Education Trust, Funding Gaps 2018

Education Trust has released a new analysis of inequity in school funding just this past week. Here's what the report says about U.S. and Michigan schools when it comes to K-12 funding for affluent versus those schools predominantly serving low-income students. You can go back to my post linked above and see specific examples of this persistent inequity. Since our state Republican-led legislature votes each year on school funding, the blame for this inequity lies with the politicians.

Education Trust, Funding Gaps 2018