To deal with such a huge amount, the plan for next year is to increase class sizes in all grade levels – reducing teaching positions.

The average is one student per class, but that means a class could see a bigger increase than just one student.

As a former educator and current president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, Trenace Riggs says class size makes a big difference.

“It's hard because we know that children do better in smaller classes. Their optimal learning is much better in a small class,” says Riggs.

The PTA president says it's challenging on teachers as well.

Brian Davison has pressed for the data’s release because he thinks parents have a right to know how their children’s teachers are performing, information about public employees that exists but has so far been hidden. He also wants to expose what he says is Virginia’s broken promise to begin using the data to evaluate how effective the state’s teachers are.

“My hope is their budget reflects the priorities of educating every child,” Mr. Obama said during a meeting with education leaders at the White House. “The idea that we’d go backwards on that progress, in some cases for ideological reasons … that’s not the kind of legacy we want to leave for the next generation.”

In the story of the American Dream, education and a good job are supposed to erase the class differences into which we are born and open opportunity to anyone with merit and grit, regardless of race.

Rising inequality within the United States is increasing and increasingly debated within the political sphere.  The Pew Research Center reported in 2013 that U.S. inequality had reached its highest level since 1928 (and they have a cool GIF graphic comparing the top 1% to the bottom 99%).  Back in October Fortune magazine reported that wealth inequality is 10 times more extreme than income inequality. 

How does this affect education?  As Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve System noted in an October speech on inequality and opportunity,

"For households with children, family resources can pay for things that research shows enhance future earnings and other economic outcomes--homes in safer neighborhoods with good schools, for example . . . For families below the top, public funding plays an important role in providing resources to children that influence future levels of income and wealth. Such funding has the potential to help equalize these resources and the opportunities they confer. Public funding of education is another way that governments can help offset the advantages some households have in resources available for children. . . the quality and the funding levels of public education at the primary and secondary levels vary widely, and this unevenness limits public education's equalizing effect. The United States is one of the few advanced economies in which public education spending is often lower for students in lower-income households than for students in higher-income households. . . .A major reason the United States is different is that we are one of the few advanced nations that funds primary and secondary public education mainly through subnational taxation. Half of U.S. public school funding comes from local property taxes, a much higher share than in other advanced countries, and thus the inequalities in housing wealth and income I have described enhance the ability of more-affluent school districts to spend more on public schools."

One of the shifts over time has been the increased concentration of families with children who live in either very high or very low income neighborhoods.  The chart below visualizes this shift.  U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently noted that the highest poverty districts in the U.S. spend 15.6% less state and local funding on education than do lowest poverty districts.

Unfortunately, the results can be a striking correlation between low-income neighborhoods and low performing schools.  And because race in the United States is often correlated with income in aggregate measures, those schools with high concentrations of minority children are also often the ones with particularly challenging school environments.  New York City is one example (see map below).  For some potential explanations for this pattern, check out this short piece from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

As Yellen points out, public funding can potentially play a roll in equalizing opportunities across higher and lower income districts.  The most contentious debates usually center around which methods of doing so are acceptable to the public or are constitutional - so called "Robin Hood" provisions where funds are transferred by states from higher-income districts to lower income districts are one policy idea.  Others have called for increased choice for students and parents to leave challenging environments through vouchers or charters. 

A more recent area of research is to look more closely at the links between housing and education in promoting greater integration across lines of race and income.  An upcoming conference hosted jointly here at VCU and the University of Richmond (CEPI is one of the local partners) includes a working group on the topic on April 9th.  The session is a continuation of a 2013 session at an international conference in Switzerland.  If you're intereseted in the April conference, several of the plenary sessions are free and open to the public.  One day and single event registration is also possible. 

In keeping with theme, our Poll Snapshot this week looks at comparisons along income, education and ethnic lines regarding whether testing is helpful or not in improving student acheivement. 

We also include an excerpt from Dr. Vacca's December 2010 Ed Law newsletter that highlighted emerging issues in equal educational opportunities. 

To read the full poll, visit our website.  The questions reported above are numbered 7 and 8e.  Topline results are on page 26 and crosstabs can be found on pages 41 and 46.