A new analysis of school funding by Pennsylvania State University has found that the spending gap between wealthier school districts, such as Lower Merion, and that of average-spending districts continues to widen, writes Jill Barshay for The Hechinger Report.

Between 2000 and 2015, the Lower Merion School District boosted its education funding by 87 percent to $23,000 per student. That is more than double the amount that schools in Philadelphia spend on their students.

This increase in the educational spending gap has wide-reaching consequences, according to Bruce Baker, a school finance expert at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

He argues that education investments by the wealthy can potentially give a boost to their children’s achievement levels and provide them with an advantage on college applications. This then ripples on into the workplace, as they are able to seek the most coveted jobs and leave those at the bottom and in the middle struggling to compete against such educational privilege.

“It’s kind of like baseball,” said Baker. “When the Yankees spend more, it makes it harder for everyone else to compete.”

Read more about the spending gap between school districts at The Hechinger Report by clicking here.

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