1. Combating Educational Inequity
Presented by:
Jon Bernstein
President
Bernstein Strategy Group
GARY MAYNARD
PRESIDENT
CONNECTICUT FEDERATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

2. Detroit city school stairwell

3. Mushrooms growing in classrooms

4. Mold, dirt, and crumbling structures

5. Equity in general All 50 state constitutions require public education
In 45 states, lawsuits filed to enforce educational rights guaranteed by the constitution, most focusing on state funding
Many facets of equity, but lack of funding is the driver
Webinar’s Focus:
What are the results of inequity?
Where do the greatest inequities occur?
What is being done rectify inequities?

6. What are the results of inequity?
Inequitable funding leads to …
Infrastructure problems
Academic limitations
Extracurricular limitations
Course material deficiencies
LESS LEARNING

7. WHAT are the results of inequity?
Students in adequately funded schools:
Increased high school completion rates
Higher adult earnings
Higher family income
Lower incidence of poverty in adulthood
Students in schools that cannot afford proper ventilation:
50-370% increase in respiratory illness
Lower average attendance
Slower completion of tasks
Higher truancy and more suspensions

8. Where do the greatest inequities occur?
Education Law Center National Report Card (March 2016)
Four Ways to Look at Data to Measure Fairness
Resource: Sciarra, D. G., & Hunter, M. A. (2015). Resource accountability: Enforcing state responsibilities for sufficient and equitable resources used effectively to provide all students a quality education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(21).

9. 1) Per pupil funding levels
Highest: Alaska ($17,331), New York ($16,726), New Jersey ($15,394), Connecticut ($14,856), Wyoming ($14, 355)
Lowest: Oklahoma ($6,700), North Carolina ($6,547), Arizona ($6,405), Utah ($6, 295), Idaho ($5,746)

10. 2) State Funding Distributions
DE = Green
Green: Earned an A
Red: Earned an F

11. 3) State fiscal effort
DE = Red
Green: Earned an A
Red: Earned an F

12. 4) Coverage Map DC = Red DE = Red Green: Greatest Coverage
Red: Lowest Coverage

13. Where DO the greatest inequities occur?
Final Grades
Who is the most/least fair?
Most: New Jersey
Least: Texas
Overall:
Most progressive : Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio
Most regressive: Nevada, North Dakota and Illinois

14. How Do you Combat inequity?
States – legislation and lawsuits
Federal government – poverty-weighted programs

15. How do you combat inequity?
Lawsuits:
New Jersey, Abbot v. Burke Cases ( )
Court Finds:
“These deplorable conditions have a direct and deleterious impact on the education available to the at-risk children.”
Court Holds:
The state’s school funding system unconstitutional because it caused “tragically inadequate” education for children in the state’s low- wealth, high-need school districts
Money can make a difference. If effectively used, it can provide the students with an equal educational opportunity, a chance to succeed.
They are constitutionally entitled to those opportunities, and have the right to the same educational opportunity that money buys for others.
Resource: Sciarra, D. G., & Hunter, M. A. (2015). Resource accountability: Enforcing state responsibilities for sufficient and equitable resources used effectively to provide all students a quality education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(21).

16. HOW do you combat inequity?
Directed implementation of a comprehensive set of remedial measures, including high quality early education, supplemental programs and reforms, and school facilities improvements, to ensure an adequate and equal education for low-income schoolchildren.
Specifically, directed the Legislature to amend or enact a new law to  “assure” funding for the urban districts:
1) at the foundation level “substantially equivalent” to that in the successful suburban districts; and
2) “adequate” to provide for the supplemental programs necessary to address the extreme disadvantages of urban schoolchildren

17. HOW do you combat inequity?
The Connecticut Story
CT has one of the largest achievement gaps in the country
Connecticut Coalition of Justice in Education
2005: CCJEF files suit in state court arguing school funding system is illegal
Suit cites several failures to provide equal educational opportunities:
Class size
Appropriate textbooks
Student services
Test scores
Graduation rates
Fair educational cost sharing across all towns

18. How do you combat inequity?
CFSA’s Role
Mission: Ensure equal and quality education for all
Joined the CCJEF lawsuit
CFSA members provided details on school conditions and resource issues
Some provided actual testimony, many provided data
CFSA kept its members informed in case developments
Lawsuit proved a good way to engage membership
Allowed CFSA to work together with state and national organizations in pursuit of important goal
What we learned: no one group can run a suit of this magnitude alone

19. How do you combat inequity?
The Decision
State has constitutional duty to educate students, even with local control
Legislature cannot allocate educational aid capriciously
State must adhere to a reasonable and discernible formula for distributing state aid
Current formula does not meet this standard
Other holdings:
High school graduation standards inadequate
Teacher evaluation system does not provide meaningful information
Teacher compensation system makes no sense and doesn’t encourage work in low-income schools
Staggering special education costs and services may need to be rethought

20. How Do you combat inequity
Federal Level
Title I
E-Rate

22. E-Rate
The Basics
Provides schools/libraries discounts on broadband and Wi-Fi services
Discounts based on free lunch program, with lowest income getting deepest discounts
$3.9 billion available annually
Paid for via fees on phone bills
Successfully equalized school and library Internet access for all districts regardless of socio-economic status or geography

23. Questions & Contacts
Jon Bernstein Gary Maynard Nick Spina