Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2019 | Page 7

From The Marketing Side
Local and State Tax Revenue per Student
2015-16 School Year
$14,500
$14,000
$13,908
$13,118
$13,500
$13,000
$12,500
$12,000
$11,682
$11,500
$11,000
$10,500
75%+
WHITE
NATIONAL
AVERAGE
75%+
NON WHITE
Source: EdBuild.org
Blame it on
No Child Left Behind
After 16 years of the disaster
known as No Child Left Behind, our
education system is polarized. The
schools in affluent communities have
more money, better teachers, and
administrators that are more able.
In addition, these able adminis-
trators receive more funding from
grants including programs such as
Title I.
No Child Left Behind was a
program intended to bring equality
to our education system, but it did
exactly the opposite. When a school
was tagged as “failing” the better
educators left for better schools. Six-
teen years later, we have the better
educators in the best schools and
the struggling educators in the worst
schools. Founded in June of 2014 by Rebec-
ca Sibilia, previously Chief Financial
Officer for the DC Office of the
State Superintendent of Education,
EdBuild is on a mission to ensure
equity and adequacy in state and
national funding mechanisms.
EdBuild to the Rescue
Understanding school funding
and understanding discretionary
funding for materials and programs
has always been a challenge. An or-
ganization called EdBuild (edbuild.
org) is trying to make sense of it. We Spend $23 Billion
More on White Schools
EdWeek education policy writer
Daarel Burnette II has written two
articles about the organization and
its claims regarding the disparity in
school funding based on whether
essentials | www.edmarket.org 7