Educational finance reforms and desegregation have both sought to address inequities in educational opportunities for minorities and low income families. The recent methods of addressing desegregation issues have tended to focus on attaining racial balance rather than educational quality, however. This paper explores how desegregation goals can be merged with educational finance reform to more systematically address educational quality in schools serving low income and minority populations. By moving toward centralized control over school financing, the inequity of school outcomes that are based on unequal school resources can be reduced. In addition, state determined expenditures when combined with desegregation monies, would meet the original intention of desegregation funds by clearly providing add-on monies for additional services for minority children, while at the same time, creating a better monitoring mechanism.
Educatinal finance reform has become a major source of change in organizing public school systems. Its potential to create more uniform and equitable educational opportunities for minorities and low-income students is very good, perhaps even better than past efforts generated through desegregation litigation. This article discusses the ability of educational finance reforms to meet one of the major goals of desegregation and to do so in a more consistent and systematic manner By formally linking the two reform movements, proponents of each may be more effective in enhancing the quality of education and the distribution of educational resources available for all lower income students.
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