Segregation and School Funding

An expert examination of district-level segregation and wealth gaps shapes an original, ambitious policy agenda to end K–12 funding inequity and create a truly fair public school system

More than seventy years after Brown v. Board of Education promised equal educational opportunities for students of color, US public schools remain stubbornly segregated, with large gaps persisting in the adequacy of K–12 funding by race and income. In Segregation and School Funding, Matthew Di Carlo and Bruce D. Baker reveal the cycle that keeps resource-starved schools at a perpetual disadvantage and show how to break it.

By pulling back the curtain on the disparate financial situation of schools within metro areas through an original analysis of district cost data nationwide, Di Carlo and Baker show that schools in higher-poverty, disproportionately Black and Hispanic districts must spend more than their lower-poverty, whiter counterparts to achieve the same outcomes. This segregation-fueled disconnect between what districts need and what they actually get perpetuates unequal student outcomes, which reinforce segregation and inequality, within and even between generations.

The good news is that much of the policy infrastructure to disrupt this cycle is already in place. Through a targeted mix of educational and K–12 financial policy reforms at the state and federal level, Di Carlo and Baker argue that we already have the means to dismantle once and for all the self-reinforcing mechanisms that perpetuate a racially discriminatory status quo. Their agenda brings long-struggling schools closer to resource equity and creates an education system where all students—no matter whether they are white or Black, rich or poor—receive the education they deserve.