Reflections on Equity, Equality, and Adequacy

Understanding the issues of equity, equality, and adequacy has helped me understand the complexity of funding public school in Texas. If every leader understood these terms to the same level and had a common, shared definition, it might be easier to formulate an equitable manner by which to fund schools. This past year, I served on the attendance boundary committee in our district as we drew lines to populate a new middle school. In a community that I understood to be very cohesive, I heard the sentiment from parents on the affluent side of town that they did not want to have their children at a school with “those kids.” This revealed to me, in just one more way, that the issue of education is extremely politically charged; that in many respects, voters, taxpayers, parents, and even leaders care about the issues only to the extent that their personal interests are concerned. In school funding, this means that taxpayers only want their taxes spent on issues that directly concern them. As long as the local schools are funded to an appropriate level, the leaders and the taxpayers from that area are satisfied and will hold on to the status quo. There are districts in Texas whose voters do not care about the students from the rest of the state. I am not suggesting that they mean the students in other districts any harm, rather that the funding of another district is not viewed as their problem. The politicians whose job it is to fund schools also feel the responsibility to advocate for their constituents and to protect their assets, to keep their tax revenue at work at home. It is our job as educational leaders to advocate for our district’s students and for the cause of education in general – to fix the problem so that it is fair to all. But as employees of a district our first responsibility is to the students of our district. We are pulled by our commitment to children in general and our commitment to the community we serve. The resultant conflict of different concerns has historically pushed the issue of funding into court where these terms (equity, equality, and adequacy) are then defined in a way that provides a universal, final interpretation. I do not think this will change under the current Texas constitution.