Prioritizing School Finance Equity during an Economic Downturn: Recommendations for State Policy Makers
Published in Education Finance & Policy, 2022
Recommended citation: Knight, D. S., Hassairi, N., Candelaria, C. A., Sun, M., & Plecki, M. L. (2022). Prioritizing School Finance Equity during an Economic Downturn: Recommendations for State Policymakers. Education Finance and Policy, Education Finance & Policy. 17(1), 188-199. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00356
Abstract: State budgets temporarily crashed amid the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown, placing education funding at risk. To demonstrate implications for school finance, we show that (1) school districts are racially segregated along class lines; (2) higher-poverty districts receive a greater share of funds from state, as opposed to local sources, making them especially vulnerable during economic downturns; and (3) many states made across-the-board K–12 budget reductions following the Great Recession, but those cuts disproportionately impacted high-poverty districts. A decade later, state legislators may face similar fiscal challenges. Instead of enacting across-the-board cuts, states can identify specific funding programs that already benefit lower-poverty districts or wealthier students. We demonstrate how this approach would work under different state finance models and offer recommendations for state policy makers.
Note: If you cannot access the published version of the paper via the DOI link above, please contact me at chris <dot> candelaria <at> vanderbilt <dot> edu
for an ungated copy.