Few people oppose educational equity as a policy goal in the abstract, yet it remains a fraught and contentious issue. Disputes surround not only how to achieve equity but, more fundamentally, how we define and measure it. This article draws on school finance research and policy to discuss critical questions about how we define, measure and, ultimately, address educational inequities.(…)Given how much educational inequity is linked to factors outside the education system, such as growing income inequality and housing segregation, it may be asking too much of schools to expect them to single-handedly eliminate the effects of these inequities.
Giving kids in high-poverty areas an equal opportunity to succeed requires spending more money on those students.