How Gerrymandering Affects Public School Students

America’s nearly 100,000 public schools were not created equal. Across the country, there is a wide gap in test scores, graduation rates, and college preparedness, even between schools less than 10 minutes away from one another. This is because many school districts have been gerrymandered in order to keep low income and minority students in underfunded and underperforming schools.

Gerrymandering involves manipulating boundaries in order to favor a certain group of people over another. Gerrymandering occurs often when designating electoral districts, usually in the favor of Republicans. The term was coined after a former Massachusetts governor with the last name of Gerry tried to approve an electoral district with a shape so outlandish that it looked like a salamander.

For decades, school districts have been gerrymandering their boundaries to keep low income and minority students out of high-performing public schools. Boundaries will be drawn so that students from wealthier neighborhoods will attend better funded schools, while students whose families cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods will be forced to attend schools with less funding.

One of the most blatant examples of educational gerrymandering can be seen in Philadelphia. The Penn Alexander K-8 school is one of the highest ranked public schools in all of Pennsylvania, and even has a partnership with the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. It has a low student to teacher ratio, and at least 70% of its students are proficient in both reading and math. Just six minutes away is the Benjamin Comegys school, another Philadelphia public school. However, at the Benjamin Comegys school, less than 20% of students are proficient in both math and reading.

How is it possible that two public schools can be so close in distance, yet so far apart in academic performance? The answer is educational gerrymandering. Philadelphia school board officials deliberately separated the wealthier neighborhoods around the University of Pennsylvania from the poorer neighborhoods of Squirrel Hill, Philadelphia. Deliberately separating students based on socioeconomic status is unacceptable, and contributes to the systemic racial wealth and education gaps in American society.

Educational gerrymandering is detrimental to students. Schools in poorer neighborhoods, which receive less funding, are not able to provide as many resources for their students. These schools tend to not offer many Advanced Placement courses, and school counselors at these schools are usually overwhelmed and underpaid. Sports and extracurricular programs at underfunded schools are usually sparse as well. These factors can decrease a student's chances of getting into prestigious colleges, even though they are no different from their peers at better funded high schools.

Little action has been taken against educational gerrymandering. Some parents have grown frustrated with the system and attempted to send their children to better funded public schools in their area. However, their efforts have had little success, and in some cases, have even resulted in jail time. An Ohio mother was jailed for sending her daughter to a school in her neighboring school district, which had better funding and more educational resources than the school within her neighborhood’s boundaries.

Additionally, the Obama administration passed the Strength in Diversity act in order to help increase equality in the public school system. However, the Trump Administration ended the funding from this act, and as of October 2023, the bill has not been reinstated.

As the divide between better funded public schools and underfunded public schools continues to grow, lawmakers need to take action and make sure that the next generation of students can have access to a more equitable public education.