Education Equity

P-12

Equal Is Not Good Enough

When it comes to providing children with a high-quality education, money matters. Yet, the U.S. education system is plagued…

November 30, 2022 by Ivy Morgan

An Analysis of School Funding Equity Across the U.S. and Within Each State

When it comes to providing children with a high-quality education, money matters. Yet, the U.S. education system is plagued with persistent and longstanding funding inequities — with the majority of states sending the fewest number of resources to the districts and schools that actually need the most resources.

To ensure that school districts had the resources to meet students’ needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government infused nearly $200 billion into state school funding coffers. While this money may help temporarily erase some of the persistent inequities in school funding, it won’t last forever. State leaders need to address the systemic, longstanding inequities in school funding systems now, so that the so-called “fiscal cliff” will not impose the most disruption in high-need communities.

For more than 20 years, The Education Trust has been analyzing school finance data, contributing to a rich body of research and analysis on the persistent gaps in revenue. This report updates that analysis, looking closely at patterns across and within states and for specific student groups. It includes new analysis comparing funding between the country’s districts with the most and fewest English learners, who represent a sizeable share of the overall student population. It is also accompanied by a new, interactive data tool that, for the first time, drills down to district and specific school-level data and reveals that those inequities persist.

Here are some of the most notable findings:

• Across the country, districts with the most students of color on average receive substantially less (16%) state and local revenue than districts with the fewest students of color, and high-poverty districts receive 5% less state and local revenue than low-poverty districts. The districts with the most English learners receive 14% less state and local revenue, compared with districts with the fewest English learners.
• While national summary data shows clear regressive funding patterns, state-by-state data tells a more nuanced story, in which state and local revenue is allocated progressively for some groups of students, but not others.
• The policies that states set up to fund their districts and schools can address or exacerbate inequities. In many states, state revenue is not allocated in a way that fully counteracts inequities in local funding.