The two Connecticut school districts sit side by side along Long Island Sound. Their teachers, like virtually all the teachers in the state, earn the same high marks on evaluations. That is where the similarities end: In Fairfield, a mostly white suburb where the median income is $120,000, 94 percent of students graduate from high school on time. Fifth graders in Bridgeport, where most people are black or Hispanic, often read at kindergarten level, one of their teachers recently testified during a trial over school funding inequities. Across the country, school funding cases have often resulted in more money being funneled into poorer districts to help offset the effects of poverty on their students.

Source: New York Times September 12, 2016 00:33 UTC