Fundraising in Wealthy Areas: Are Unequal Educational Advantages Fair?

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According to an article in the NY Times.com entitled, Nation’s Wealthy Places Pour Private Money Into Public Schools, a research study has found: "private groups are raising an increasing amount of money for public schools in wealthier communities..." This certainly raises questions about inequality. 

The article's first two examples do a good job of demonstrating this appalling trend:

In Coronado, Calif., a wealthy enclave off the coast of San Diego, for example, local education groups, which support about 3,200 students in five schools, raised more than $1,500 per student in 2010. These private funds helped pay for arts and music classes at all grade levels, sports medicine courses at the high school and a digital media academy at the middle school, where students are learning animation and designing buildings with 3-D printers.

By contrast, the combined fund-raising of groups affiliated with schools in the San Diego Unified School District — where the median household income is about two-thirds that of Coronado — amounted to $19.57 per student.

The article states that, based on the research findings by Ashlyn Aiko Nelson and Beth A. Gazley of Indiana University, "Part of the reason for this is that most states now have funding formulas that either cap or redirect local property tax revenues to state coffers in an effort to equalize public funding between affluent and poor districts. Communities that previously funneled more money to the schools by voting to raise property taxes are now looking for other ways to capture local money." Please read the article in its entirely HERE.

And now that the problems have been identified - what's the solution?

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