By Isabella Rosario
Faced with declining enrollment and an inequitable state funding formula, the Davenport School District’s fight for equal funding in Iowa has been an uphill battle — one that may just get steeper.
School officials recently issued possible budget cuts for the next three years, amounting to a staggering $18.3 million. Proposals include smaller changes such as increasing class sizes by one or two students next year and more devastating cuts such as eliminating the district’s Creative Arts Academy and even closing a school by 2020, all according to the district’s Three Year Budget Reduction Plan.
The issue of unequal state funding in Davenport schools, where 65.87 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, can be boiled down to a shocking reality: Because of higher property taxes, 170 of Iowa’s wealthier school districts can spend up to $175 more per pupil than the other 163 districts — including Davenport. With Davenport’s enrollment of 14,490 students, this leaves an astounding $2.5 million that the district is prohibited by state law to spend, even though the funding is in reserves. This amount is determined by School Foundation Formula, which was set up by the Iowa Legislature in the 1970s. In response to the issue, high-school students have traveled to the State Capitol to promote their “Worth-Less” campaign, a movement started by Davenport North student Anthony DeSalvo in 2015. Superintendent Art Tate has nobly stated he is prepared to violate state law to help Davenport students.
This unjust, classist state funding formula should have never been implemented in the first place. And now that the “Worth-Less” campaign has repeatedly traveled to the State Capitol and even been covered by the Washington Post, the time for the state Legislature to make a change is long overdue. We can’t easily alter what students go home to — and as a proud graduate of Davenport schools, I know economic backgrounds in my hometown are greatly varied. But the quality of a child’s education should not depend upon how high their city’s property taxes are. Unfortunately, in light of recent budget-cut proposals, that reality may become even closer to the truth if state lawmakers remain complacent.
Low funding not only creates larger class sizes and threatens extracurricular programs, it has a direct effect on student success. Education leaders have concluded students in districts held to the state cap are more likely to experience lower math scores and lower graduation rates, with students less likely to attend a four-year university; two-thirds of former Davenport students this year either dropped out or were expelled. Like most other metro areas in the state, Davenport’s enrollment is on the decline. While enrollment in its public schools has dwindled, Assumption’s Catholic school system’s numbers have experienced an 8 percent boost in growth over the last decade. In this respect, the ramifications of Iowa’s faulty state funding formula become clear: More students in private schools mean more money and better educational and extracurricular programs — and fewer Davenport students receiving an underfunded public education. Students who would never have the option of spending thousands of dollars a year on a private education are the ones whose success is made most vulnerable by the state cap — a state cap that is, in large part, enabling the looming threat of $18.3 million in budget cuts.
The news of these astronomical budget cuts is extremely disheartening. As someone who attended Davenport schools my whole life, I am not only grateful for the wonderful teachers and faculty that constantly worked beyond their pay but also for the diverse and talented community of students I had the opportunity to study and grow alongside.
They deserve better. They are worth just as much.