We’ve heard it so many times already, but maybe if we keep saying it over and over and over, someone, somewhere, will begin to feel some moral outrage:
When it comes to school funding, too many states still provide the least to school districts serving students with the greatest needs, according to a report released today by The Education Trust.
Find the link to the full report here.
Education and Class 
I was thrilled to read my home state in this statement:
Alaska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio – high-minority districts received at least $1,000 more per student than districts with the lowest percentages of minority students.
So someone, somewhere has heard the cry. Have hope.
Out of curiosity, I compared the “achievement gap” in NAEP scores in states with a funding gap according to the Ed Trust report with those without a funding gap. The results?
In the 19 states where there is a minority funding gap, the average NAEP black-white gap is 26.2 pts in 8th grade reading and 33.4 pts in 8th grade math. In the 20 states without a minority funding gap, the average NAEP black-white gap is 25.2 pts in 8th grade reading and 31.7 pts in 8th math. I’m not sure whether or not that’s a statistically significant difference, but it suggests that there’s more to the problem than simply money.
The numbers are even less clear when it comes to the poverty gap. In the 23 states with a poverty funding gap, the average NAEP poor-not poor gap is 20.1 pts in 8th grade reading and 23.6 pts in 8th grade math. In the 26 states without a poverty funding gap, the average NAEP poor-not poor gap is 21.0 pts in 8th grade reading and 24.4 pts in 8th grade math.
New Jersey, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have some of the largest NAEP achievement gaps in the country but all four spend significantly more in poor and minority districts according to the Ed Trust data. Similarly, some states such as Maine & New Hampshire score among the worst in funding gaps but still have among the smallest achievement gaps.