Study shows rural Pennsylvania school districts not benefiting from nearby fracking
Natural-gas industry boosters make several arguments for why natural-gas drilling, aka fracking, is beneficial for Pennsylvania. But their main argument, and one that is often repeated by Republican and many Democratic politicians, is economic. Industry boosters claim the economic growth and jobs, especially in rural areas, that come with the growth in the fracking industry is too good to pass up, even if health and environmental problems follow.
But a new study from Penn State University is shedding light on some of those claims, with a focus rural school districts where fracking is occurring, and it's not positive.
Titled “A ‘Resource Curse’ for Education?: Deepening Educational Disparities in Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boomtowns,” authors and Penn State education department professors Matthew Gardner Kelly and Kai A. Schafft dig into the school district revenues in areas that were home to drilling rigs in between 2007-2015.
“Evidence from our analysis suggests that, on average, districts experiencing unconventional drilling had lower per-pupil revenues, locally raised per-pupil funding for schools, per-pupil income, and per-public property wealth than very similar districts that did not experience unconventional drilling," reads the study.
Read more: https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/study-shows-rural-pennsylvania-school-districts-not-benefiting-from-nearby-fracking/Content?oid=16835301
(Pittsburgh City Paper)
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The study could suggest a phenomenon where fracking is actually contributing to a wealth transfer from rural to suburban school districts, possibly because those earning wealth in the fracking industry aren’t living in the rural communities that are experiencing the majority of the drilling.
“Despite promises that unconventional gas production would be an engine of economic opportunity, many Pennsylvania school districts continue to struggle financially, a struggle that appears to be worsened by gas development,” wrote Kelly and Schafft in a story for The Conversation.
It's time for Pennsylvania to correct this error. The argument that local rural schools are helped by the fracking industry has been shown to be FALSE! Fracking is ruining our environment and our water supplies, it hogs precious resources that could be directed to needier problems, and there's little proof that our local economy is improved. The profits and high-salary jobs are going to outsiders for the most part. When the oil is gone they'll be gone too, and we'll be cleaning up the mess they leave behind.
Is this the legacy we want for our grandchildren?
