Embedded Files
Photo from https://phillystudentunion.org/
Everyone who steps into Masterman can experience firsthand the underfunding of the Philadelphia School District. We have mice running around the halls, broken water fountains, and heat that never goes off. However, Masterman is in excellent condition compared to other public schools in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Student Union is a city-wide organization that has been fighting against inequality in the school district, and inequality in district funding on a state level for almost 25 years. This column will be written by a member of Masterman’s chapter of the Philadelphia Student Union, highlighting issues in the school district and discussing potential solutions to inequality in the school district. We will start with an overview of the year so far.
On February 13th, Clara Barton Elementary and James Sullivan Elementary schools were the 8th and 9th schools that have been forced to close this year. However, this problem goes beyond misconduct in the school district and underlines yet again inequity across Pennsylvania School Districts, and within the Philadelphia School District itself. Like any other problem we see within schools, it can be boiled down to a funding issue. It’s no secret the Philadelphia School District is grossly underfunded. Although Pennsylvania has a fair funding formula, a piece of legislation that is supposed to distribute state funding to schools in an equitable way, only about 7.5% of the state payments toward public schools go through the formula. It does nothing to even out the disparity between districts like Lower Merion and Philadelphia.
State only makes up about 35% of school districts’ budgets, however. The rest districts have to make up on their own, using money from local property taxes, liquor taxes, and tobacco taxes. This is an issue as lower-income districts where property taxes are lower don’t make nearly as much money as higher income districts. Average family wealth of all assets combined in Philadelphia is about $188,000. The State average is about $360,000. In Lower Merion, an infamously well funded, nearby school district has an average wealth of about $1,400,000. Districts which are wealthier receive more money for their schools, completely undermining education as the “great equalizer,” and ensuring much less upward mobility to kids in poorer neighborhoods.
Additional programs within our own city like the 10 year tax abatement further hurt our schools. The 10-year tax abatement ensures that properties new development and rehabilitation work to properties like houses in Philadelphia are exempt from paying taxes on the increase in property value the development caused. The abatement just makes it easier for the Philadelphians who can pay save a little extra money at the expense of public schools. Although new city legislation is “decreasing the abatement,” if the program was totally killed, Public School would stand to gain $162 million more annually.
In the Philadelphia School District, the asbestos issue has put disparity on display between schools, as well. The asbestos issue only became an issue when SLA moved into the Ben Franklin building, even though the building has had asbestos for decades. SLA, a student body with more white students and students from higher-income families, were allowed to continue going to school in the close by School District Building, where Ben Franklin Students had to relocate to the building of KHEPERA Charter, three miles north of the current building.
Once again, the story of the Philadelphia School District is a story of inequality. However, the situation isn’t hopeless. Among other organizations, the Philadelphia Student Union has been hard at work building a campaign against these toxic schools. The Student Union, an organization that has been fighting for equality in the school district since 1995, historically protesting the state takeover of the Philadelphia School District, budget cuts on both a state and city level, criminalization of students by police presence and metal detectors in school.
Page updated
Report abuse