News Story

Hillary Has It Wrong: Low Income City Doesn't Mean Low Income Schools

Districts in poor areas get a lot more money

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently said in an interview that politicians don’t fund schools in poor areas.

Clinton said, “But I am also fully aware that there are a lot of substandard public schools. But part of the reason for that is that policymakers and local politicians will not fund schools in poor areas that take care of poor children to the level that they need to be.”

In Michigan, urban school districts often get considerably more federal money than other districts, largely due to special funding targeted at them. For example, the average school district here received $513 per pupil from federal sources, according to the Michigan Department of Education. Benton Harbor, however, received $2,014 per pupil from the feds in 2013-14, the most recent year data are available.

Other Michigan districts serving low-income students had similar federal funding advantages: Flint received $3,194 per student from the feds, Detroit received $3,251 per student and Saginaw received $1,487, compared to the $513 per student state average.

This extra funding allowed districts with a large proportion of low-income residents to have more money per pupil than other districts.

At the Benton Harbor school district, 48.4 percent of the population is living below the poverty level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state average is 16.8 percent. Benton Harbor Area Schools received $11,607 per pupil from all sources in the 2013-14 school year, including local, state and federal money. That was 27 percent more than the average for all public schools in Michigan, which was $9,121 per pupil.

In the Flint school district, 41.5 percent of residents live below the poverty level, and it received $13,127 per pupil in funding, which is 44 percent higher than the statewide public school average.

Detroit had 39.3 percent of its residents living below the poverty level, and its schools received $12,931 per pupil, or 42 percent higher than average.

In Saginaw, 37.3 percent of the population is below the poverty level and the schools received $10,180 per pupil, or 12 percent higher than the statewide average.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

Editorial

Teacher Job Openings Attract High Number of Applicants

Grumbling aside, scant evidence of teacher exodus

Detroit News opinion editor Nolan Finley recently wrote about his ideas for how to fix Michigan schools.

Finley offered several interesting interpretations, but one statement we question: “Teaching is falling out of fashion as a profession. That’s particularly true in Michigan, where teachers feel they have been scapegoated for failing schools and asked to bear the brunt of the budget woes. Attracting the best and brightest into classrooms is a challenge, keeping them there an even greater one.”

ForTheRecord says: We have not seen any convincing evidence to support claims by union and state officials that teaching positions have fallen out of fashion. CapCon is contacting school districts regarding job applicants. Thus far, between nine school districts with 10 teacher openings, there were 223 applicants.

It is true that not every district is swamped with applications for each job posting. Tekonsha Community Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Kawaski said an opening for a middle school/high school science teacher received just three applications. But it also required the teacher be certified in integrated science.

The Galesburg-Augusta district posted for two high school science teaching positions and received a total of 20 applicants.

And according to the state, there are many more people certified to teach in the state than there are jobs.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.