School funding: how much does money matter?
Listen 00:48:44Guests: Kevin McCorry, Bruce Baker, Cory Turner
Two elementary schools only a few miles apart might spend wildly different amounts of money on their students. Since school funding depends on the revenue generated from local property taxes, impoverished communities often have the most poorly funded public schools. Pennsylvania has the greatest disparities in funding among the states — the poorest districts receive 33% less money then the richest. But how much does money matter in education? Do more dollars automatically mean better schools and better educated students? And how can we make the system of school funding more equitable across the nation? This hour, Marty talks with three guests about disparities in school funding. BRUCE BAKER is a professor at Rutgers who specializes in school funding, KEVIN MCCORRY is WHYY’s senior education writer, and CORY TURNER, an NPR education correspondent and the co-editor of the new NPR series, School Money.
Image: U.S. Department of Education
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