Funding isn't cause of achievement gap

Illinois State Sen. James Meeks has floated the idea that Chicago students should take off their first day of school and attempt to enroll in a suburban school to illustrate "funding inequalities" between the Chicago City Schools and those in the suburbs.

On Thursday, the Chicago Urban League sued the Illinois State Board of Education calling the current school-funding property tax scheme unconstitutional.

Both are charging that the funding differences between school districts is the cause of the black-white education gap.

I believe both are incorrect because facts available that illustrate the achievement levels and school funding do not support their hypothesis.

For example, the 2007 Prairie State Achievement Exam test results (reading, science and math combined, for 11th graders in CPS, which spends $10,400 per student, show that 22 percent of black students meet or exceed standards while 63 percent of white students meet or exceed standards.

Same schools, same funding levels and a large achievement gap.

In Evanston District High HSD 202, where funding exceeds $17,000 per student, the same PSAE test show that 31 percent of black students meet or exceed standards while 89 percent of white students meet or exceed standards.

District 211 in the Northwest suburbs, with funding around $13,500 per student, the PSAE shows that 27 percent of black students meet or exceed Standards while 74 percent of white students meet or exceed standards.

Lest the critical or discerning reader accuse me of "cherry picking" the data, they can and should review the PSAE scores for all high schools in the state, as I have.

What they will find is, regardless of funding, a similar achievement level in the vast majority of these schools.

This data strongly suggest that increased funding for "underfunded" Chicago Public Schools will not affect the black-white education achievement gap.

Joe H. Heater

Palatine