If what we fund is what we value, what does it say when the inequities are this stark?

Released Friday from New America is a new report using 2021 funding data, "Crossing the line: Segregation and resource inequality between America's school districts." It looks specifically at "next door neighbor" districts, so to speak, where the gulfs between neighboring districts are the largest.

This is, let's be clear, generally accompanied by gulfs in enrollment by race and ethnicity, too. It doesn't happen accidentally. As they note in the report:

Nationwide, 53 percent of public-school district enrollees are students of color, including 14 percent Black students, 28 percent Latino students, and 5 percent Asian students, among others. However, these students are highly concentrated in a relatively small number of districts, and 26 percent of school systems serve student populations that are more than 90 percent white. The average district border separates districts that are 14 percentage points apart in their proportions of students of color. But along the 100 most racially segregating school district borders in the country, the average separation is between a district that is 92.4 percent white and a district that is 86 percent students of color. 

You can read the full report here (that's a PDF).

From a Massachusetts perspective, I want to call your attention to he multimedia story of 100 most economically segregated lines, because guess what? We're in there.

Four times:

We should of course note that this is 2021 data, so not full implementation of the SOA, but that doesn't mean a) that will be closed or b) more importantly, that the reasons for this shouldn't be examined and combated. A flag of four being in the national top 100 doesn't mean this isn't a statewide issue.

Among the 100 most racially segregated borders: 

I have ongoingly said that the conversation Massachusetts never wants to have is how segregated its school districts are. Even in all the ongoing "number one for some" and descriptions of achievement gaps, we are allergic as a state to discussing why it is that some districts don't even have statistically significant enrollment of students of color or whose first language isn't English.

I don't think that serves any of us well. 

 

PS, because you know I'd never leave off Worcester; you can do these comparisons with any school district borders here. 
Here's Worcester Public Schools compared to surrounding on low income enrollment:

And on students of color: