A new book written by Roseann Liu, a visiting professor in Asian American Studies and Education Studies at Swarthmore College, shines the light on the deficiencies in Pennsylvania’s school funding, writes Nate File for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia and other predominantly Black and brown districts throughout the state receive less funding than the predominantly white districts, even after factoring in poverty and local incomes.

According to Liu, if the state distributed its entire education funding budget equitably, the School District of Philadelphia would get millions more every year. However, state lawmakers have proven to be highly resistant to making changes to the funding structure.

“That proposal has always been seen as a nonstarter,” she said.

Liu’s book, Designed to Fail: Why Racial Equity in School Funding Is So Hard to Achieve, offers insights she gained from policy analysis and field work she performed advocating for POWER, a local group fighting for racial and economic justice.

She wrote the book aiming to present the issue in a way that an audience beyond academics and those already in the know can understand.

Read more about the book and its look at the unconstitutionality of Pennsylvania school funding system in The Philadelphia Inquirer.