Dream vs. Reality: What Does a Perfect School Look Like?

And why the f*** is our reality so far away from it?

Note: This is a long one this week! But we promise it’s worth your time. Next week we had a request from a reader to go into what makes a product stick with customers—specifically, schools—which we’re excited to dive into. This week we want to go deeper into the issues plaguing our K-12 public educational system.

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Imagine you can build a public educational system from the ground up. No constraints. What does this system or school look like?

Okay…maybe not that. That’s the “Dream School” from Tamagotchi, and from what I’ve read on the Wiki, it’s surprisingly good.

Anyways, I think we’d all probably imagine similar things. Schools are well-funded, and the poorest neighborhoods receive additional support. Also, there’s adequate funding for the arts and athletics. Cafeterias serve decent food (definitely not horse meat). Students have access to counseling support and school nurses. Students matriculate at high rates with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed—whether it’s in college, a trade, or whatever their heart desires.

There are some things we probably take for granted, too, when imagining this ideal school, like time for play, or a library.

Or that the school is safe.

Reality

Okay, so our dreams come up against reality. Limited budgets. Competing needs. Whatever. But the the reality for most American students has become so far removed from the dream. And that’s a tragedy, and it means that for the next few decades, as these students come into the workforce, we will be facing a generation that has been woefully unprepared for a changing and demanding world.

We are going to examine Five Realities that push against the vision that most of us have of an ideal school system.

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Reality 1: Funding is Regressive

In the US, K-12 public schools spend about $13.1K per student (total spend is $667B). Schools receive about $764B (excluding ESSER funding) from a mix of federal, state, and local governments—so there is actually a spending surplus of $98B. The reality is we can actually spend closer to $15K per public school student.

Source: Education Data Initiative

Funding Context

Those numbers don’t mean much without context, though. So here’s some color:

1. GDP grows 72% faster than public education budgets. That means—all else being equal—our spending on education isn’t keeping pace with inflation or with our country’s GDP growth. Ideally, GDP growth and increases in education spend would grow lock-step.

2. The US spends 4.96% of its GDP on education, vs. the OECD average of 5.59%. For context, we spend about 3.48% of our GDP on the military. We have 1.4 million active military personnel, but 49.5 million K-12 students.

3. At the state and local level (because federal funding only accounts for 7.9% of K-12 funding), education spend is about 3.76% of their total budget. States spend about 4% of their budget on the police (Source: Urban Institute).

Okay. So we spend more on the police at a local level than we do on schools. If we follow that to it’s logical conclusion, this is self-perpetuating.

In NYC, as part of budget negotiations, the Adams administration cut $215M in local education funding last year, $300M for this upcoming year, and $375M for ‘24-25.

The Adams administration’s rationale is that enrollment has been declining, and therefore budget can/should be cut. In NYC, enrollment dropped by about 6% last year, and is down 11% since 2019 (and in the Bronx, is down nearly 18%).

That should scare you. This is a collapse of the largest school district in the country.

I worked at a charter network, but I’ll be the first to admit that our students deserve a well-funded public educational system. It is effectively a utility that every family should have access to. The Adams administration’s gut reaction of cutting budget only exacerbates the death spiral. We should be committing MORE money to our public educational system to revive enrollment.

San Francisco has seen a 6% drop in enrollment, but is only (but still) cutting about $5M. Chicago has seen a 2.5% enrollment decline, but is increasing their budget by a slight amount (although 39 schools—of which 36 are predominantly schools of students of color—are seeing budget cuts). Source: Chalkbeat

So to sum it up, spend per student over the last decade has increased by about $800 per student—which is not a lot. There is still a decent amount of federal funding that goes unspent each year, states spend more on police than they do on schools, and local budgets—particularly in cities that were negatively impacted by COVID—are getting hammered.

Regressive Funding

State grants and local revenue make up the lion’s share of funding for schools. About 56% of the NYDOE’s budget come from local revenues, and 40% from state grants (4% from the federal government). By and large, this is relatively consistent for most departments of education.

That 56% is generated from property, sales, and income taxes. The state collects that revenue and distributes a portion of it back to the local district, which then divvies up that distribution among its schools using a funding formula.

Sometimes this funding formula is confusing. Take U-46, the second largest school district in Illinois. Ronald D. O’Neal Elementary School in Elgen, Il., is a part of U-46. Not a single 3rd grader could read or write on grade-level in 2019, and 90% of their students are considered low-income. Nine miles away, Centennial Elementary—also a part of U-46—had 73% of 3rd graders be proficient-or-above on the state reading test. About 20% are considered low income. One would assume that the Illinois state funding formula would direct more money to O’Neal, because this makes basic sense.

The above chart shows the correlation between per-pupil spend and % considered low-income for U-46.

Instead, Centennial receives about $1K more per student than O’Neal, and close to $1M more annually (source: An incredible analysis by Tara Mathewson at The Hechinger Report). You can see that there is actually an inverse correlation between spending and % of the student body that is economically disadvantaged. But at least we can see some type of correlation, even if it’s not the kind we’d want (but the kind we expect).

Sometimes, this funding formula isn’t just confusing—it doesn’t make any f*cking sense. Take NYC District 27, which oversees a massive area in Queens.

PS 155 has 90% of their students at or below the poverty line, and receives $12.9K per student. PS 47 has 45% of their students at or below the poverty line, and receives $23K per student. In fact—there is no regression line of best fit for the above chart. So what exactly is the formula doing?!

This is regressive funding at its most basic and pernicious: You give less to the schools and communities that need it most, and where the marginal value of spend is actually higher: $1M at PS 155 would have had a greater impact than $1M at PS 47.

There are a few counterfactuals that make me cautiously optimistic. In 2013, California revised their state formula—the Local Control Funding Formula—to redirect more funding to underserved students. The issue with the LCFF was that there was wide latitude on spending, and only about 55c per dollar was making its way back to the high-need schools that generated that additional funding. California has recently added more stringent guardrails (Source: EdSource).

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Reality 2: No Funding for the Arts and Athletics

We’ve painted a somewhat simple image of funding in this country. It’s regressive and it’s low relative to our peers. And in spite of chronic underfunding, there is still funding left unspent at the federal level.

So what are we spending it on?

Not the arts.

In NYC, as a result of Mayor Adams’ wild budget cuts, arts programs are the first to go. 77% of public schools were told to cut their budgets. There are no city or state guidelines on allocating spend to the arts.

A one-time grant of $3M to some schools requires them to spend $80 per student. The grant expires after a year. And while most schools in NYC have at least one art program, adoption is weak (compounded by absenteeism). Just 33% of 8th graders had completed a single arts credit (Source: DOE). This is pretty much a nationwide trend. 80% of schools across the country have cut their arts budgets over the past decade.

Duvall County in Florida, home to Jacksonville, has seen budget cuts for three years in a row, and have been forced to cut sports funding each year.

This sucks because the arts and athletics have a huge positive impact on our students and society. Numerous studies showcase this. Meta analyses prove that students who take music classes have increased proficiency in math and reading, and higher SAT scores.

“In Keller Independent School District in Texas, students that are involved in arts or athletics show greater success on standardized tests than their peers who do not participate in such activities. In fact, students in the arts or athletics outperformed their peers by a wide margin: 14% more students were proficient in English, 20% more were proficient in math, 16% more were proficient in science, and 16% more were proficient in social studies.” - Source: Public School Review

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Reality 3: We’re feeding students actual horse meat

“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product,” - Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology

I used to teach in a school co-located with PS 149. The meals were not bad. I’m not too proud to admit that I not only survived on public school lunches while I was a teacher, I thrived. But I have heard horror stories, and it makes you wonder about the perverse incentives that exist in the catering and food services world. Publicly traded companies like Compass Group, Sodexo, and Aramark are—above all else—beholden to their shareholders. Students are not their customers. Students do not pay for their meals. Students are the product.

And Compass Group does not care about students. This is true because they have shown an absolute disregard for their students and the people they serve: There was the UN corruption scandal, that time they accidentally served people horse meat, that other time they settled a lawsuit with the DOE for overcharging by $18M—the list literally goes on and on.

Compass Group wants to keep costs low and keep prices high. They are a business, after all! Up until COVID, Compass Group was wildly outperforming the S&P 500. They still are.

You don’t get returns like that without overcharging a few public schools and feeding some kids horse meat!

It’s in Compass Group’s Investor report! See that graphic above? Profit growth exceeding revenue growth! That means they charge more and/or lower their operating costs. Why not both! They charge more for their horse meat. 64% of their business is in the US, and 20% comes from schools (Source: Compass Group Investor Report 2023). This is the very definition of misaligned incentives.

This isn’t just a problem with Compass Group, though. This is EVERYONE. What’s my evidence? Sodexo also accidentally fed horse meat to students through their frozen beef products. Why is everyone accidentally feeding students horse meat!? They had to recall their mystery horse meat from 2,300 schools, senior citizen homes, prisons, and army bases.

How about Aramark? Well, they’ve been caught pocketing money that should have been returned to Detroit Public Schools and feeding people dog food. That might actually be worse than horse meat?

Even DOE officials are caught up in this mayhem. Many DOEs got fed up with suppliers and moved to self-operation, such as NYC and Detroit. Eric Goldstein, the head of the NYC DOE food operations was indicted on bribery charges last year. He oversaw food at 1,400 schools and took kickbacks from a tiny food supplier that funneled rotting, disgusting food to those 1,400 schools. In Detroit, millionaire and ex-food supplier, Norman Shy, and 12 principals were convicted for cheating Detroit Public Schools out of $2.7M worth of supplies.

The cost to feed students has DOUBLED since 2017. Sodexo’s stock, meanwhile, is up 40% YoY. Probably because they’re raising prices for our public schools. With schools slashing budgets, maybe one day Principals will have to decide between food or art classes.

Source: Time

Okay. Our dream school isn’t doing too well. Funding is regressive and being cut, our students aren’t showing up for the one art class we offer, food costs are soaring and our food is…possibly alive? Or at the very least, horse meat.

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Reality 4: Schools aren’t safe

Let’s turn to school safety, then. Our school has a nurse, right? Maybe even a counselor? Our kids feel safe walking the walls?

44% of parents worry about their child’s safety, the highest rate since 2001, and about 20% of students feel unsafe in school (Source: Gallup).

There are a lot of reasons schools don’t feel safe.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death among US children and teens.

Half of all teens have been cyber-bullied. COVID and smartphones have diminished children’s abilities to empathize and connect with one another. The suicide rate for teens ages 10 - 17 is up 60% over the past decade, with more than 1 in 5 teens having seriously contemplated suicide (Source: Pew).

Amidst all of this, how do we create a safe space for students?

No Counseling and Mental Health Support: Just Cops

According to the ACLU, 80% of youths who need mental health supports don’t receive it. Of those that do, 70 - 80% receive those services in their schools because their communities lack those services.

“Students are 21 times more likely to visit school-based health centers for mental health than community mental health centers. This is especially true in low-income districts where other resources are scarce.” - Source: ACLU

Our dream school would have school counselors, nurses, social workers and psychologists. It would provide the wraparound services that students need to succeed and which many communities lack.

The reality is that more schools are cutting funding for these services and redirecting it towards police officers (school resource officers). In 1975, 1% of public schools had an SRO. Today, 48% do. More schools have SROs than have nurses (Source: ACLU).

And these SROs actually exacerbate or escalate issues in many cases. In 2015, there were 230,000 referrals to law enforcement and 61,000 school arrests. Students of color are arrested at disproportionately higher rates. Black girls make up 22% of Florida’s female student population but 74% of female school arrests for disorderly conduct (Source: ACLU). Students with disabilities are 3x more likely to be arrested as well.

Over 60% of school arrests were for misdemeanors: Disorderly conduct and misdemeanor assault were the most common charges.

Many of these referrals and arrests could be handled by school counselors or social workers. We need to stop this movement towards SROs. They’re not necessarily making schools safer. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that SROs in schools predominantly of color are more likely to focus on school discipline and less likely to coordinate with emergency teams in cases of actual threats (such as active school shooters).

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Reality 5: The Things We Take for Granted

All Work, No Play

We know play is important. Recess was a big part of our childhood. Standing on jungle gyms and making up games, making up new worlds, and making friends. The problem is that recess time in the US is decreasing. Since 2001, recess time in the US has declined by 60 minutes. “Elementary students now get an average of just 25 minutes of recess per day, [and] over 75% of school districts do not have a formal policy requiring daily recess for their youngest learners (Source: EAB).”

The reason we cut play is sad but simple: A hyper-focus on instruction, particularly in testing grades, that squeezed out recess. It takes time to transition students to the playground and back. Let’s skip it, have recess in our classroom for 10 minutes, and go back to practicing our math facts.

But studies show that recess and physical education (which we’re cutting!) increase student health—physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Something happens to the brain’s prefrontal cortex that builds neural connections. It’s why physical play for elementary age children is so important: It increases their hand-eye coordination and motor function, helps them regulate emotions, and improves information processing.

It’s Too Quiet in the Library

Another thing we take for granted are libraries. I used to love perusing books, trying to wrap my head around the Dewey Decimal System, and seeing who checked out books before me.

Half of the school libraries in LA don’t have a librarian (Source: LA Times). Many of these libraries—filled with nearly $100M worth of books—are locked, such as the Roy Romer Middle School library. There are racial and socioeconomic overtones, as well. 57% of the libraries in east and southeast LA are unstaffed, vs. 26% of libraries in south LA.

In Boston, 58% of schools lack a full-time library with staff (Source: Boston Globe). In Philadelphia, 84% lack a professional librarian. We have all this knowledge that is either not being curated, or being locked up entirely. Since 2014, about 20% of librarians have left the field (from 194K to 158K). I expect this shedding to accelerate as the book banning movement gains steam (now at a 21 year high). This book banning has seen pretty much all of Toni Morrison’s incredible bibliography banned, including “The Bluest Eye,” as well as Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Hosseini’s “Kite Runner”—three books that led me to fall in love with reading and writing in high school.

There are efforts to provide digital libraries to students, but these run into the issue of the digital divide: 23% of Americans don’t have internet access at home.

What this means is, essentially, that fewer children are reading. 54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level, and about 21% are illiterate (even in their home language). The people most impacted? People of color and people who are or have been incarcerated. Good thing we’re putting all those cops in schools/communities of color!

Oh god.

Where did our dream school go?

Okay. That was tough. How are you holding up?

To recap, our schools are regressively funded, enrollment is plummeting, and our kids don’t have time for play. They don’t have decent food in the cafeteria because we’re PROFIT MAXIMIZING, baby! Eat that horse meat!

Pretty much every state fails to meet the recommended ratio of counselors and social workers to students. We went from no cops in schools to half our schools having them in about thirty years. Oh, and our libraries are all closing.

There are schools that reflect our dream school—Blue Ribbon public schools, charter schools, and private schools alike. So we know it’s possible.

The crux of the problem, in my view, is Reality 1: Regressive Funding. Everything really flows from there.

Various factors lead to declining enrollment. 26% of students leaving the public educational system have moved to home schooling. Many go to private schools. Slightly less go to charter schools. Those declines lead cities and states to make a critical mistake. They cut budgets.

Which leads to even worse public education, which then causes enrollment to decline further as more parents pull their kids out of failing schools or opt for charters. It becomes a death spiral.

I’m generally in favor of school choice, but I understand why people are opposed to the idea of it, if the logical conclusion is to defund public schools. But that’s not the logical conclusion, and we shouldn’t have to sacrifice a generation of students while we wait for schools to get better. Defunding schools as a knee-jerk response to declining enrollment is a pernicious form of benevolent neglect. Period.

Instead of cutting funding to public schools, governments should be increasing it. This is Business 101. If you want to turn your business around, you do not serve horse meat. You open up the library, hire a social worker, and invest in the arts. All of these decisions have been proven to improve student mental health, improve test scores, and reduce disciplinary actions.

Every state should reevaluate their funding formulas to direct more funding to poor schools. We should be investing the most of any OECD country on education. We should pay teachers more, which would decrease teacher vacancies and turnover, and open up those libraries again. We should focus on turning schools into mentally safe spaces, not fill them up with metal detectors and cops. We should focus on providing our students with healthy, well-balanced meals—not horse meat or rotting chicken, for god’s sake. The bar is low. In many ways, we’ve gone backwards. The dream is far.

But we can make incremental movements towards it. And our students deserve that dream school, not this bizarro reality that has been constructed over time, like a river carving its way through a landscape.

There are many ways to redirect the river and carve a new path.

But first, it starts with a dream.