filed under Daily Dose
Is this still news?
7:56AM ON
05/29/2008
BY
Dave Segal
UPDATE: And, in this post’s first incarnation, I forgot to mention that while the average state funds about 60% of education — with the cities picking up the rest of the tab — in RI, the state only funds about 37%.
Do ya think, that there’s a possibility, that educational performance might just be predominantly a class issue? Is there a chance that schools in poverty-stricken districts, wherein families move around constantly, and parents work multiple jobs, and city infrastructure is decrepit and services stink, are set up for failure?
This might be even a bit worse in a state that relies more than any other on regressive municipal property taxes to fund education, and in a city wherein 52% of property isn’t even taxable, because it’s owned by nonprofits, the state, or the feds.
And, perhaps, this’d be even worse yet, were the state in question among the two that didn’t bother to fund its schools per a predictable funding formula?
YES — The Providence Public Schools could be better. (Though, given all the awful constraints within which they operate, might be doing a drop or two better than expected.) Can we stop pretending that this is a surprise, and do something about it already?
Write a Comment