This has disastrous consequences for the quality of schools' serving the poorest children. Every year one-third of new teachers leave the profession. Among those who stay in teaching, the best depart for schools in nicer neighborhoods as soon as they can. No wonder schools in poverty neighborhoods are turbulent and parents cannot develop relationships with teachers and principals. The only principals who stay in such schools are the heroes, who will fight for children whatever the odds, and the incompetent, who have no choice.
Some districts claim to allocate disproportionate amounts of money to schools in poor neighborhoods.
Funding formulas that give extra weight to needy students, however, are often a shell game. The published budgets claim that schools in poverty areas get extra money, but the district charges them more for their teachers than those teachers are paid. The result is that schools in poor areas have fewer real dollars per student than the budget claims they have. Although they won't admit it, leaders of big-city school districts know this is true. But these programs work only if the school's instructional core is sound.