white school districts funded $23 billion more than black school districts

According to a staggering report by EdBuild, predominately white school districts are funded approximately $23 billion more per year than school districts that serve mostly students of color.

“For every student enrolled, the average non-white school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district,” the report says. Which means, the American education system values the education of a white student more than their non-white counterparts. And this is demonstrated in the manner in which we both educate students and the types of resources that they have access to.

It’s worse for students who live in high-poverty districts. Those students receive $1,600 less per student than the national average. Compared to school districts where students are both poor and white and receive just $130 less. Meaning that, sure, poor white people exist and there are drawbacks for those individuals, but as far as education, they are still better off than the inequality experienced by students of color.

The report goes on to reveal a gross number of inequalities students of color all across the country face. And, typically, the imain reason for these systemic inequities is the racial segregation of cities and towns, which tend to marginalize people of color.

“We have built a school funding system that is reliant on geography, and therefore the school funding system has inherited all of the historical ills of where we have forced and incentivized people to live,” says Rebecca Sibilia, founder and CEO of EdBuild.

EdBuild concluded that the most severe of the segregation takes place in 21 of the 50 states, including California, New Jersey, and New York. Meaning more than half of America’s students attend a “racially concentrated” or segregated school in which more than three-quarters of the students are white or non-white.