Written By: Chenzira McLoyd
Education inequality across racial groups in the United States continues to be a major issue, preventing a large share of Americans from unlocking a crucial path to financial prosperity, personal growth, and a higher quality of life. As of 2019, for K-12 schools, school districts in which the majority of students were Black or Hispanic received a staggering $23 billion less in funding than districts with a majority white student population, despite both containing a roughly equal amount of students (Camera, 2019). This disparity in funding between white and minority students is primarily due to the fact that schools are largely funded by property taxes, and white districts tend to be wealthier than minority districts, providing more money for quality instructors, supplies, and educational support ( Simon, 2021). Despite this discrepancy being a national problem, one of the country’s largest cities remains a uniquely challenging case: Philadelphia. With 1.5 million residents as of 2024, the mid-atlantic city is the sixth largest in the United States (Census, 2024). However, it is also the second poorest big city in the U.S, with a poverty rate of 19.7%, and with this comes a massively underfunded school system (Calabrese, 2025). The School District of Philadelphia is currently experiencing a deficit of $300 million, and is proposing a $225 million budget cut for the 2026-2027 school year in order to address it (Comber-Wilen, 2025).
This underfunding does not affect all students equally, though, as demonstrated by the apparent differences in school quality across Philadelphia. There are numerous high-quality schools in Philadelphia, such as Masterman, the city’s top public school, and also the eighth highest ranked public school in the entire country, known for its stellar curriculum and college readiness (U.S News & World Report, 2026). There is also Germantown Friends School, the best high school for STEM in Pennsylvania and in the top 4% of private k-12 schools in the nation, and Central High School, the 3rd best high school in Pennsylvania (Niche, 2026; U.S News & World Report, 2026). The issue, though, is that these schools are dominated by white students, with 60% of Philadelphia’s minority students attending schools deemed as “low achieving”. These are schools where the average standardized test scores are below both the average Philadelphia and average Pennsylvania scores. Additionally, In Northeast Philadelphia, although Black students outnumber white students by a margin of four to one, there are three times as many white students as Black students in the region’s “high-achieving” schools. These are schools where standardized test scores fall above the state average (Hagen, 2021). Although standardized test scores are not an all-encompassing measure of overall school quality, they are a proven indicator of college readiness and thus a widely-used tool in college admissions (Matthews, 2025). As white students in Philadelphia disproportionately attend schools that perform better in terms of standardized testing, they are more likely than minority students to attend top-tier universities, paving the way for superior career opportunities. Furthermore, the percentage of Black students at the two top-performing high schools in Philadelphia, Masterman and Central, have dropped by 35% and 13%, respectively, in the past decade (Hagen, 2021). These statistics demonstrate that the schools receiving the funding required to provide top-notch education to their students are predominantly white, while minorities typically attend lower-quality schools that lack the resources required to ascend to higher levels of education, ultimately limiting their career and financial opportunities.
In fact, Philadelphians with bachelor’s degrees earn, on average, 2.2 times more annually than those with less than a high school diploma, which is largely dependent on a person’s race (Martin, 2025). This salary gap is due to the fact that minority-dominated neighborhoods such as West Kensington (which sits inside the Northeast Philadelphia area previously noted for its education discrimination), are also neighborhoods with very low high school graduation rates. 28% of West Kensington residents don’t have a high school diploma, which is over twice the amount for the city as a whole (Martin, 2025). Conversely, the Northwest and Center City neighborhoods of the city, which are 43.9% white and 68.1% white respectively, have a combined average college graduation rate of over 75% (DataUSA, 2023; Martin, 2025; Points2Homes, 2025). These are the neighborhoods that contain Central High School, Masterman, and Germantown Friends School, some of the highest-rated schools not only in the city, but in the country. As illuminated by these figures, Philadelphia student race is a major factor that dictates the quality of K-12 schools which they attend, which in turn affects the proportion of students who are able to graduate and attend good colleges, affecting lifetime financial and career success.
Despite these challenges, Black students in Philadelphia are improving academically, as over 50% of the low-achieving schools in Philadelphia are designated as “high growth”. This categorization means that they are exceeding the standard growth of Pennsylvania schools as a whole. 39% of Black students in the city attend low-achieving high-growth schools, and seven of these schools had an increase in test scores over 10% in recent years (Hagen, 2021). These results are thanks to initiatives of the School District of Philadelphia to implement additional resources for English Language Arts, Math, and Science, including tutoring services and access to Career and Technical Education services (CTE) for underprivileged students (School District of Philadelphia, 2023). Although there is still quite some work to be done until minority students reach a level of success equal to their white counterparts, progress is being made in the right direction, particularly within the city of Philadelphia. However, as this disparity is a result of generations of racial discrimination faced across the nation, policy regarding education may have to change at a federal level in order to effectively counter the inequities that continue to harm American minorities.
References
Accelerate Philly 2023 – 2028 Strategic Plan [Review of Accelerate Philly 2023 – 2028 Strategic Plan]. (2023). The School District of Philadelphia. https://www.philasd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SDP_StrategicPlan_June-1-2023.pdf
Calabrese, J. (2025, September 12). Philadelphia is no longer the “poorest big city in the US,” but who took the top spot? FOX 29 Philadelphia. https://www.fox29.com/news/philadelphia-is-no-longer-poorest-big-city-us-who-took-top-spot
Camera, L. (2019, February 26). White Students Get More K-12 Funding Than Students of Color: Report. US News & World Report; U.S. News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2019-02-26/white-students-get-more-k-12-funding-than-students-of-color-report
Comber-Wilen, V. (2025, December). Education in Philly: Vibrant higher ed, while school district works to improve. Billy Penn at WHYY. https://billypenn.com/2025/12/01/city-guide-philly-education-overview-k-12-higher-education/
Central High School. (2024). Usnews.com. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/pennsylvania/districts/philadelphia-city-school-district/central-high-school-17231
Center City, Philadelphia, PA Household Income, Population & Demographics | Point2Homes. (2019). Point2homes.com. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/PA/Philadelphia/Center-City-Demographics.html
Educational Attainment in Philadelphia’s West Kensington and East Oak Lane Areas. (2025, July 23). Pew.org; The Pew Charitable Trusts. https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2025/07/educational-attainment-in-philadelphias-west-kensington-and-east-oak-lane-areas
January 14, N. H. |, 2021, & UTC, 1:46am. (2021, January 13). Racial, economic inequities persist in Philadelphia schools, new report says. Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2021/1/13/22230116/racial-economic-inequities-persist-in-philadelphia-schools-new-report-says/
Matthews, D. (2025, August 28). What Standardized Test Scores Tell Us—and What They Don’t [Review of What Standardized Test Scores Tell Us—and What They Don’t]. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/going-beyond-intelligence/202508/what-standardized-test-scores-tell-us-and-what-they-dont
Philadelphia City (Northwest) PUMA, PA | Data USA. (2023). Datausa.io. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/philadelphia-city-northwest-puma-pa
QuickFacts: Philadelphia city, Pennsylvania. (2024). Census Bureau QuickFacts; United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/philadelphiacitypennsylvania/PST045224
Simon, C. (2021, July 9). How COVID taught America about inequity in education. Harvard Gazette; Harvard University.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/07/how-covid-taught-america-about-inequity-in-education/2024 Germantown Friends School Rankings. (n.d.). Niche. https://www.niche.com/k12/germantown-friends-school-philadelphia-pa/rankings/