Charter School Expansion and Within-District Equity: Confluence or Conflict?

Bruce D. Baker (), Ken Libby () and Kathryn Wiley ()
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Bruce D. Baker: Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Administration Graduate School of Education Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick
Ken Libby: School of Education University of Colorado at Boulder
Kathryn Wiley: School of Education University of Colorado at Boulder

Education Finance and Policy, 2015, vol. 10, issue 3, 423-465

Abstract: This article explores whether two popular policy initiatives are compatible or conflicting strategies for enhancing educational equality in diverse large urban centers. These two initiatives are (1) charter school expansion and (2) improvement of resource equity across urban public school systems through policies often referred to as weighted student funding formulas. In this article, we focus on New York and Houston, two cities where districts have adopted initiatives to improve equity of the distribution of school site funding and have concurrently experienced significant expansion of charter schooling. We find that charter schools have the tendency to amplify student population differences across schools by disability, language, and low income status, and that charter schools’ access to financial resources varies widely. Nevertheless, we find that in very large urban districts like New York City, where charter market share remains small, the overall effects of charters on system-wide inequity remain small.

Keywords: policy initiatives; education policy; urban; charter schools; resource equity; public school; weighted student funding formulas; New York; Houston; school districts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I22 I24 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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