Public Schools Educate the South. Fund Them Like It.
By: Dr. Kenita T. Williams, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Southern Education Foundation
Across the South, third-grade teachers lead classrooms where many students need basic literacy support. High school juniors ask to take calculus and learn their schools no longer offer it. Districts cancel summer learning when federal relief funds run out.
These look like separate problems. For Southern families, all three trace back to the same source: how we fund our public schools.
K–12 public schools serve nearly 9 in 10 students in the United States, and the South educates a disproportionate share of students from low-income families and students of color. Yet across our region, public education remains chronically under-resourced. Our Economic Vitality and Education in the South, Part II (EVES II) report found that per-student funding in 16 of 17 (94%) Southern states falls below the national average. Inequitable state funding formulas, combined with the expansion of private school vouchers that siphon public dollars from local districts, leave public schools with less to spend on the basics, including the pay it takes to keep qualified teachers in the classroom.
Those funding gaps show up in classrooms quickly. Many school districts eliminate advanced coursework, limit students’ access to technology, and drop specialized academic supports. Without advanced courses, students miss out on the preparation that EVES II links to stronger college outcomes, as well as credits that can reduce the time and cost of a degree. The expiration of federal pandemic relief worsened those losses, and in a national survey, more than half of school superintendents said they would scale back summer learning once relief funds ended. Recent reductions in federal education funding have hit this region hardest, with 11 of the 12 most affected states in the South.
We study these hurdles to see how they connect, and what they show is that educational progress will not come through piecemeal fixes.
Public education is a promise to every child in our region and one of the surest investments we make in our shared future. Keeping it requires two things at once: defending public school funding and, in the meantime, capturing every available resource for our public school students. Southern Education Foundation (SEF) has long opposed private school vouchers because public dollars belong in public schools, and a new federal law now asks us to hold that conviction.
Beginning January 1, 2027, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) will allow taxpayers in participating states to claim a federal credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). Fifteen of 17 Southern states have already signaled they would opt in to the FSTC, and the U.S. Treasury estimates the program could direct up to $26 billion annually into elementary and secondary purposes. The law also allows those contributions to explicitly support academic tutoring and extended-learning time for public school students, especially those who live in low-income households and students of color. These are the students SEF has fought for since 1867. While SEF is not encouraging governors to opt in to the FSTC, we recognize the importance of ensuring that public school students are not left behind in states that choose to participate. In states that decide to opt-in, we intend to make sure our students share in what the law provides.
We are building a network of public school SGOs to connect these dollars to public school students and the tutoring that serves them. The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting, which SEF incubated, has reached more than 44,000 students by tying providers’ pay to student outcomes. Public school families deserve to know that the tutoring their children receive is working, and we will expect every provider in the Alliance to demonstrate that.
Full and fair state funding remains our goal, and we will keep pressing for it in every Southern statehouse. Public schools made a promise to the children in those third-grade classrooms, to the juniors who want calculus, and to the families who lost summer learning. We will pursue every resource that can reach them.