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Sunday, January 12, 2020 10:44:37 PM
Opinion - Why Shouldn’t New York’s Wealthiest P.T.A.s Share With Its Neediest Schools?
"Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories. American history textbooks
can differ across the country, in ways that are shaded by partisan politics."
What to do when those with the most get more.
Illustration by The New York Times; photographs by Getty Images
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise,
research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
Jan. 12, 2020
New York City’s public school system is already one of the most segregated and unequal in the country.
Why then should its parent-teacher associations exacerbate inequality?
New York’s P.T.A.s are doing exactly that, according to city data and reports from the city’s Independent Budget Office. Across the city, the disparities are stunning.
Take the P.T.A. at Public School 29, an elementary school in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn with a low percentage of pupils living in poverty. The P.T.A. reported it raised more than $1.7 million, or more than $1,800 per student, in the last school year. Compare that with P.S. 6X, West Farms, an elementary school in the Bronx with a high poverty rate among students, which reported raising just $5,793.82, or less than $11 per student.
[...]
One idea is to take a portion of P.T.A. funding above a certain amount from each New York City school and direct it toward a common, citywide fund that helps high-need schools. Though that might sound radical, it’s already in action elsewhere.
In Portland, Ore., one-third of funds above $10,000 raised by parents in a P.T.A.-like system are distributed to high-need schools through a fair-funding formula. Over $1.2 million was distributed in the last school year, according to Jonathan García, the president of the Fund for Portland Public Schools, a nonprofit organization that now oversees the program.
“People are bought in,” Mr. García said. “Nobody bats an eye.”
Things unfolded differently in California in recent years, where the sharing of P.T.A. funds between Malibu and more economically diverse Santa Monica helped fuel a kind of secession movement among Malibu parents.
David Bloomfield, a professor of education law at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, said that in New York, a city with vast wealth but also grinding poverty, P.T.A.s could make a difference. “There should be a wealth tax,” he said of such a plan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/opinion/new-york-pta.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
"Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories. American history textbooks
can differ across the country, in ways that are shaded by partisan politics."
What to do when those with the most get more.
Illustration by The New York Times; photographs by Getty Images
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise,
research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
Jan. 12, 2020
New York City’s public school system is already one of the most segregated and unequal in the country.
Why then should its parent-teacher associations exacerbate inequality?
New York’s P.T.A.s are doing exactly that, according to city data and reports from the city’s Independent Budget Office. Across the city, the disparities are stunning.
Take the P.T.A. at Public School 29, an elementary school in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn with a low percentage of pupils living in poverty. The P.T.A. reported it raised more than $1.7 million, or more than $1,800 per student, in the last school year. Compare that with P.S. 6X, West Farms, an elementary school in the Bronx with a high poverty rate among students, which reported raising just $5,793.82, or less than $11 per student.
[...]
One idea is to take a portion of P.T.A. funding above a certain amount from each New York City school and direct it toward a common, citywide fund that helps high-need schools. Though that might sound radical, it’s already in action elsewhere.
In Portland, Ore., one-third of funds above $10,000 raised by parents in a P.T.A.-like system are distributed to high-need schools through a fair-funding formula. Over $1.2 million was distributed in the last school year, according to Jonathan García, the president of the Fund for Portland Public Schools, a nonprofit organization that now oversees the program.
“People are bought in,” Mr. García said. “Nobody bats an eye.”
Things unfolded differently in California in recent years, where the sharing of P.T.A. funds between Malibu and more economically diverse Santa Monica helped fuel a kind of secession movement among Malibu parents.
David Bloomfield, a professor of education law at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, said that in New York, a city with vast wealth but also grinding poverty, P.T.A.s could make a difference. “There should be a wealth tax,” he said of such a plan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/opinion/new-york-pta.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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