Blunder

The school segregation issue Democrats should be talking about

As welcome as this new frank moral dialogue is, it risks passing over the basic economic infrastructure underlying America's school segregation problem. Simply put, a huge portion of public school district funding in the U.S. is drawn from local property taxes. As a result, school resources have been inextricably tied to disparities in wealth and home ownership which are some of the most clear and obvious manifestations of generations of racial discrimination. That linkage must be broken. Moreover, we should move to a system where most, if not all, school funding is distributed out from the national level.Right now, about 45 percent of all school funding comes from taxes assessed at the local level. For the most part, that means property taxes: i.e. a tax on the value of the home or business establishment you own. Another 45 percent comes from state governments, which can rely on both property taxes and other taxes. Finally, the remaining 10 percent comes from federal spending, which is financed by federal income taxes and capital gains taxes and the like.

The marginal funding that makes most of the difference is from parental non-profits, parental volunteering to manage and produce the extras after schools cover the 3Rs.  Parent volunteers will always be around the good grammar schools, always finding that extra margin.