Since March 2020, the coronavirus
pandemic has been detrimental for many people and businesses. Local shops went
out of business, restaurants closed, and schools underwent an abrupt and
drastic change. Schools everywhere went from roundtable to behind the computer
screen. For elementary and high school students, the switch to online was extremely
burdensome. Now that students are filling the classroom again, the load hasn't
lightened for some school districts in Louisiana.
According to a study by WalletHub, certain districts across
Louisiana don't provide the same quality elementary or secondary school
education. Unfortunately, wealthier neighborhoods receive a greater amount of
funding per student than low-income neighborhoods. The discrepancies between
wealthy and low-income neighborhoods have only intensified since the pandemic
began. Since transitioning to remote learning, low-income students have
suffered the greatest "learning loss." This is caused directly by not having
the needed resources, such as computers or laptops, to make remote learning for
every student possible. WalletHub ranked the states with the most and least
equitable school districts in the U.S. Louisiana ranked number 25, with Beauregard
Parish as most fair, and Orleans Parish (which has some of the wealthiest
neighborhoods in New Orleans—Carrolton/Audubon, Lakeview/City Park, French
Quarter, and the Garden District) as the least fair. The pandemic
disproportionally impacted low-income students last year and will continue to
do so moving forward unless serious action is taken to make sure that these
school districts have the resources they need to catch up and provide a robust
education in the coming academic year.
For public schools, most of the funding
is determined on how well a school performs on standardized tests. In
low-income districts last year, the quality of education decreased drastically
due to inequality resource distribution causing a lack of materials needed for
successful online or hybrid learning. As a result, these schools will have
lower scores, and instead of giving these schools additional support so that
the students may catch up, they will receive less funding and have even fewer
recourses. Contrasted to neighborhoods in Orleans Parish, where wealthy
families were able to stay at home with their child during lockdown and have
access to a desktop or laptop for online learning. Now that schools are opening
again, unfair funding is causing a new problem—low-income families can't afford
to stay at home with their child and therefore must send them to public schools
that aren't mandating masks or social distancing, while wealthy families are
staying home or can afford to send their child to private schools with much
smaller class sizes and less risk, as well as with funding that is not
determined by the local and state government.
The coronavirus pandemic has
highlighted deadly flaws in the education system. Working toward providing all
school districts with equitable funding by moving away from outdated policies
for public schools, such as funding based on standardized testing, will help
all students have a level playing field in graduation rates and pursuing high
school graduation. WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez explained that the best way
to put one forward toward this goal is to "make sure that all schools have the
resources they need to provide a robust education in the coming year…no matter
how affluent a school's community is, it should have enough funding for an
effective catch-up year, including tutoring resources for students who have
fallen behind."
To view the data from WalletHub,
visit wallethub.com
