As was reported in US News, some states allow communities to break off and form their own districts, taking their tax dollars with them and siphoning off crucial financial resources from schools in low-income areas that are more diverse and where communities and children are more vulnerable. The nonprofit group EdBuild, which deals with educational funding and equity, recently released a report called Fractured: The Breakdown of America’s School Districts. The report found that 30 states have laws on the books to allow small towns to secede from larger communities. Across the nation, 71 localities have attempted such a move and 47 have succeeded since 2000.
One good example of this secession movement is taking place in Alabama, which makes it particularly easy for communities to secede. For example, a federal court has allowed the town of Gardendale, a white, middle-class section of Jefferson County, to break off from the rest of their current school district for the purposes of, as the mayor articulated, “keeping our tax dollars here with our kids, rather than sharing them with kids all over Jefferson County.” The new school district would serve a student population of 2,000 that is 22 percent nonwhite and 7 percent low income. In contrast, throughout Jefferson County, one fifth of the children are impoverished and the majority are nonwhite.
When well-to-do white school districts break off from their larger, poorer and darker areas, they take the resources and the tax base with them. The report noted that 21 of the 30 states allowing secession require action by voters, while 21 require approval by a state authority. Three states require a constitutional amendment and only one state requires the state legislature to take action. Only six of these states must consider racial and socioeconomic factors, and nine must consider the impact on funding.