How education funding can return economic capital back to Black communities

As a parent, my work on Portland Public Schools' Budget Review Committee is an opportunity to shape how we invest in our Black and Native students and families. I was deeply moved at one school board meeting where Guadalupe Guerrero began our budget planning conversation by presenting how racism and displacement has shaped the wealth and intellectual capital within our Black and Native communities in Portland.

The historical underinvestment and dehumanization of our strong and brilliant Black and Indigenous students is the context by which we need to talk about the current health and fiscal crisis. That night, the superintendent's leadership team aimed to disrupt the white consciousness of board and community members to make budgeting decisions with precision, intentionality, and love. I share a few more ways we can return wealth and capital back to our Black and Native communities in my article below.

--

Education policy is implemented at the local level. It should be dynamic to serve diverse races, ethnicities, languages, and cultures. Yet, we’ve framed diversity as a deficit, not an asset, in our communities. As a result, our education system has built prosperity based on racism and bias. As such, economic capital is not shared universally across families. Our social systems are rooted in the false premise that white people are inherently superior to other races and ethnicities. In some parts of the country, white supremacy was the goal of public policies passed by legislatures, regulated by state boards, and implemented by our civic leaders. In the context of today’s national uprising in support of antiracism and the global health pandemic, it is imperative that education policies aim to disrupt the white consciousness and intentionally rewrite our children’s todays and tomorrows so we can actualize freedom for communities who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC). 

School closures began with a $23 billion racial funding gap for K-12 schools.

How pandemic-impacted education budgets can reprioritize wealth

Lawmakers can address racial inequities by using precision while planning for education budgets and considering increased expenses for hygiene and transportation. The tax revenue losses, as a result of the coronavirus, are leading to dim budget forecasts. Education makes up 25-50% of state budgets, leading many lawmakers to consider across-the-board education cuts that would be harmful to our untapped diverse communities. School closures began with a $23 billion racial funding gap for K-12 schools. The schools where Black and Latinx students attend are also more likely to be under-resourced to provide high-quality distance learning programs. Education leaders must make fiscal decisions while addressing race inequities exacerbated by the coronavirus and potential learning loss.

School leaders should coordinate with local and regional agencies providing a central nerve for reopening decisions spanning childcare, school, and workforce. In late March, the $2 trillion CARES Act appropriated $30.75 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund. This federal relief will minimally cushion school districts next year, increasing their federal fund revenues by an average of only 2%. The education community has advocated for additional relief dollars immediately so states can apply precision in budgeting decisions. Superintendents across the country remain concerned about the additional costs of restructuring learning environments (70%), transporting students (63%), and providing special education services (67%). Yet, state lawmakers and education leaders are left stymied while they wait for a bipartisan federal relief package this summer.

Leaders can make inclusivity central by partnering with community-based and culturally specific organizations early-on.

In the meantime, lawmakers and leaders can evaluate how budgeting will impact cultural responsivity within service implementation. The economic downturn will impact communities based on their proportion of federal, state, and local revenues. We know that wealthy school districts relying on property taxes will be less impacted, while low-income school districts relying on state funding will require more cuts and reduced supports. The budget shortfalls in racially/ ethnically diverse school districts will be layered with increased needs for social services for BIPoC communities disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. Leaders can make inclusivity central by partnering with community-based and culturally specific organizations early-on. Making rapid decisions occurring in-real-time more equitable during the summer/fall budgeting timeframe this year. This will help lawmakers hold the line on education funding and consider how investments can shift misplaced capital back into BIPoC communities requiring additional supports to recover from the pandemic.

We can markedly change our investment in Oregon's Black students

Oregon has been nationally recognized for taking quick actions this spring in response to the economic downturn, but we are in this for the long haul. Sales taxes are impacted first in economic downturns, yet Oregon education funding comes from state income and local property taxes, as well as the lottery fund. While the Oregon Department of Education reports an approximate $489 million shortfall in the State School Fund, Oregon has established two reserve funds to be considered in efforts to maintain K-12 funding.

Oregon’s most recent economic forecast suggests we are in a recession and recovery will span into the next decade. Oregon leaders can protect our BIPoC communities by considering the following tenants:

1. Act fast to secure funding levels. Congress and state lawmakers are playing a dangerous game of chicken. Congress is waiting to evaluate how the CARES Act funds are used by states, while states are hoping for additional federal relief dollars before shoring up budgets for next year. Unfortunately, the longer states delay in planning for revenue shortfalls the deeper budgets will be cut in the next biennium. The impact of which, we can ascertain from the Great Recession, results in adverse impacts on BIPoC students.
2. Be precise, use a scalpel. Oregon Governor, Kate Brown, asked state agencies to submit budget plans with 17% reductions in preparation for revenue downfalls. Across-the-board cuts to critical services are dire for our untapped diverse communities disproportionately impacted in health and economic outcomes during the pandemic. Instead, Oregon can explore opportunities to carryover federal funds into the next fiscal year, promote statewide flexibilities to blend and braid federal funds, and protect existing contracts essential for educational services.
3. Focus on educator diversity. Oregon has covered ground over the past decade to improve the proportion of ethnoracial and linguistically diverse educators by establishing the Educator Advancement Council and incorporating additional fiscal provisions into state law. Lawmakers can protect these strategic investments in BIPoC communities by resisting the urge to reduce investments in systems essential to addressing inequities in educational inclusivity, opportunity, and intellectual and economic capital, like educator diversity.
4. Invest more in high-poverty schools Due to the typical proportion of federal, state, and local revenues making up school districts’ budgets, we know that high-poverty districts are more reliant on state revenue than more affluent districts. So, as states apply across-the-board budget cuts, high-poverty districts may disproportionately lay off junior teachers, not fill needed positions in high-poverty schools, and challenged with increased joblessness of families. As a result, communities facing limited resources in a typical year will be impacted more than affluent districts unless we target and increase our investments.

While the federal funding we’ve received so far is not enough to mitigate the impact of an economic recession on Oregon’s K-12 schools, we cannot delay fiscal actions any longer. There are many uncertainties about the school environment next year and the health of our workforce underlying our community’s prosperity. We need to target investments in ways that address the racial disparities highlighted by the recent public uprising over police brutality against Black communities and use fiscal precision when making decisions about where we place intellectual and economic capital in our schools. We don’t have time to wait for additional federal relief, this an era of state governance and leadership -- it is our time.

--

Dr. Christine M. T. Pitts is a Policy Advisor at NWEA. As an Oregonian, raised by a multicultural family of educators, she brings a decade of progressive strategic leadership experience, a transformational vision, and analytic skill to crafting state education policy. An educator, leader, and researcher by training, she has conducted legislation, governance, and policy analyses on a wide array of education issues using social network analysis and mixed methods research. In addition, Dr. Pitts is a facilitative leader who deeply understands and executes transformative partnerships and convening across stakeholder groups. Dr. Pitts currently coordinates across policymakers and state leaders to investigate and advocate for policies that prioritize equity in education. Follow her on Twitter @cmtpitts.