impact of fiscal inequity on at-risk schoolchildren in St. Louis (Testimony of Kern Alexander, March 12, 1996), The

Journal of Negro Education, The, Summer 1997

[The judge asked whether the advantages of neighborhood schools existed when students were poorer or came from single-parent families. Alexander responded "No." The judge then asked how those students would fare in another school district.]

ALEXANDER: ...In most cases of this type, the child attends a school that is a better school. The child in fact is attending a school that has a higher expenditure per pupil.... Throughout this discussion, there is a bifurcation of education which reads: there's a circle around the core city, the "doughnut effect," in our. core cities of the United States. There is an educational bifurcation: good education in the suburbs, poor education in the core city. There is also a "carry-forward" bifurcation.. .of the labor market: the city has low wages.. [the] suburbs tend to have better wages, better jobs. But what you would do by exposing children from the core cities to that new climate would be the possibility of greater life prospects they would not be exposed to if they were contained in their local core city.

[Alexander agreed with the judge that, with respect to out-of-district transfers, there was a definite risk that only the better students with better-motivated parents would go, leaving behind those whose parents were not so motivated or students who might be more inclined to drop out. Alexander suggested counseling the students themselves to take advantage of transfer programs. The questioning turned next to Alexander's detailed report on fiscal effort, fiscal capacity, and school funding in Missouri. In that report, Alexander counted at-risk students as 1.5 eligible pupils. He also showed how he had arrived at his conclusion that Missouri discriminates against African American children, who are more likely to be poor and live in communities with less income to meet educational needs.

Alexander was next cross-examined by Dianne Piche, attorney for the Caldwell/NAACP plaintiffs. Alexander agreed with Piche that funding by the state in terms of average daily attendance rather than enrollment gives St. Louis and most core cities appreciably less money since more enrolled students are absent each day (making educating them more difficult); yet the city is responsible for educating all enrolled students.]

PICHE: You indicated [in your report that], "A high effort may be needed to provide only a substandard performance level." Do you have an opinion, sir, about whether. . including the desegregation funds that have been allocated to the city of St. Louis, whether the city is providing a substandard level of services, a standard level, [or] above standard.... If you have an opinion?

ALEXANDER: No, I would simply say to provide the level of services that St. Louis is now providing, it puts forth an extraordinarily high effort to sustain those services.... I have not testified that the level today is substandard.

PICHE:. . .In states where you may have been involved. . .can you give us an example of what happens in a school district without necessary resources?