The education of school children has long been a contentious issue in American politics. At its heart, its purpose is to prepare young people for the future. Parents, elected officials and communities grapple with how to best to do this, how and where schools should be built and how to fund them. Unfortunately, the legacy of segregation, white flight and the hollowing out of urban communities has left many low-income Black students stuck in poor, underperforming schools that don’t prepare them for the future.
Politicians of both parties have made a lot of hay about the state of inner-city and majority Black schools. As the party that largely controls many large urban centers, and overwhelmingly wins the African American vote, Democrats politically own the outcomes in most of these jurisdictions.
The Democratic Party has pushed to increase funding for low-income schools, aiming to solve a perceived lack of funding equity. However, the districts with the most income and racial segregation actually tend to spend more on low-income and minority schools than on wealthier, typically white-dominated ones.
