Giving Compass' Take:

• Andre Perry at The Hechinger Report discusses inequality in school funding, the expanding gaps in student achievement based on family income and how teacher strikes can help ensure students have full access to the basic resources they need.

• How does the funding gap between rich and poor districts impact the success of students? 

• Interested in reading more about the disparities in school funding and America's teacher strikes? Here are articles about the lack of funding for poor students and what we've learned from teacher strikes.

In the run-up to a new school year, I was proud to contribute $100 to the parent teacher association at my son’s school for classroom supplies. It seemed an uncontroversial ask — of course I wanted his class to have the supplies they needed for the year. And for those who can easily afford it, this sort of donation, or, at some schools, the purchase of the supplies themselves, can seem entirely innocuous.

But why exactly are parents paying for paper and pencils? You know, those things schools should have in their supply cabinets. Unfortunately, school cupboards across the country are bare — or at least underfunded.

Inequality in funding manifests itself in growing gaps in achievement between students from wealthy and poor families. In a 2011 report about the wealth gap’s impact on academic achievement, Stanford University researcher Sean Reardon found that “the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born twenty-five years earlier.”

Parents should take these teachers’ lead and join them. Get out of the line to buy school supplies and get in line to demand the state fully fund public schools.

Read the full article about the effect of teacher strikes by Andre Perry at The Hechinger Report.