State School Funding Reformers Regroup for 2004

Over 60 people representing 25 state and national organizations involved in the fight for adequate school funding met in Washington, D.C., November 6-8, 2003, to prepare for another year in pursuit of reform.

Members and friends of the New York State Public Employees Union took to the streets for “a better choice.” The campaign included 30 progressive organizations called the Alliance for Quality Education. The better choice featured closing tax loopholes and enacting a temporary surtax rather than suffering budget cuts in school funding and human services.

The National School Funding Network (NSFN) was established in 2000 and meets annually so state-based policy and organizing groups can share information, skills, and strategies to strengthen each state's capacity to be more effective in their work and avoid recreating the wheel in state after state.

New York was center stage this year following a successful campaign to increase taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals in order to limit school funding cuts.

The Empire State has a unique collaboration among over 30 progressive organizations called the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE). Republican Governor George Pataki's no-new-tax budget forced local communities to choose between funding cuts for human services and higher property taxes. AQE was able to mobilize hundreds of organizations around their state to fight for "a better choice" in the capitol—a temporary surtax on business and upper income groups which prevented tax hikes on homeowners and protected key health and education programs.

Although the New York legislature is Republican, they fought their own state executive because the pressure to save services was so strong and the antagonism to property taxes so deep.

Alabama and Oregon representatives discussed the tax losses impacting education in their states, where the barrage of anti-tax advertising was so strong that even low-income families, who would have paid less under the proposed tax reform in Alabama, voted against the bill. In Oregon, a small income tax increase was defeated despite reduced weeks of school, days per week, and hours per day forced on administrators because of budget shortfalls.

As Doug Gould, a New York public relations specialist who also met with members of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES) in October, said to the national group, "The political message has to be both true and believable, and many times the two do not coincide."

Richard Rothstein, a professor at Columbia University and former education columnist for the New York Times, provided a sobering overview of the in-depth investment required to close the achievement gap.

He quoted a study of families' communications with small children and found that on average, professional families spoke about 2,100 words an hour to their 3-year-olds. Working class families spoke about 1,200 words, and families on welfare spoke approximately 600 words an hour. Over a period of months and years, this disparity in verbal stimulation alone has a dramatic impact on children's ability to build reading and writing skills.

Adding to the difference are children's exposure to experiences through vacations, cultural events, and special programs (dance, art, camping, etc.). These—as well as serious gaps in health and dental care for low-income children—result in a massive difference in children's school readiness and potential. To counteract this disparity, remedial work, enrichment, and services must be provided to students at or near poverty. This is a critical but expensive feature of schooling in the 21st century.

Robert Chanin, general counsel for the National Education Association (NEA), discussed the lawsuit underway that challenges the federal government's right to take Title I funds away from school districts that are not keeping up with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) demands.

The NCLB law stipulates that states do not have to follow the law's dictates if there is not sufficient funding to do so. Therefore, the NEA and partners are challenging the federal government's right to threaten states for not meeting all the unfunded mandates.

From California to Vermont to Arkansas, there are groups like WAES fighting the same struggle to bring enough resources into schools so that all children have the opportunity to succeed. Once a year, we are not only in the same boat, but in the same room to share frustrations, encouragement, and lessons learned from the past year.

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