Funding & Equity
This research investigates and explains Michigan’s system for funding public schools, particularly for Black students, via Critical Race Theory, focusing on structural racism and discrimination embedded in education finance laws, housing policies, and residential and educational segregation. This research agenda is one of the first studies to apply Critical Race Theory,* through quantitative analysis, to school finance data.
01
An investigation to explain structural racism associated with Michigan public charter districts funding effort (2021)
Caldwell, P., Smart, R., & Richardson, J.
Journal of Education Human Resources, 39(2), 165-183.
https://doi.org/10.3138/jehr-2020-0033
The research objective is to explain evidence of structural racism, inequity, and inadequacy in the Michigan public school finance system related to the education of Black students or Black descendants of captive and enslaved Africans. This analysis stems from ongoing research that integrates transformative paradigms, critical race theory, and school funding fairness to explain systemic racism associated with public school funding policy, practice, and educational disparities.
02
The Intersectionality of Educating Black Students in Michigan: Public School Finance, Racial Segregation, and Housing Policy (2023)
Caldwell, P., Richardson, J., Smart, R., & Polega, M.
Journal of Education Human Resources, 40(4), 524-563.https://doi.org/10.3138/jehr-2021-0031
This research applies critical race theory to investigate Michigan’s system for funding public schools, focusing on structural racism and discrimination embedded in education finance laws, housing policies, and residential and educational segregation. We find that the average Black student receiving free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) receives $502 less per pupil per year than the average White student receiving FRL and $884 less than the average White student who does not receive FRL.
03
The Crisis of Michigan’s Public School Funding and Its Influence on Human Resources Management (2023)
Smart, R., Caldwell, P., Richardson, J., & Sim, G.
Journal of Education Human Resources, 41(3); 477-513.
https://doi.org/10.3138/jehr-2021-0066
Human resource management (HRM), particularly within urban public school districts, cannot generate adequate resources to compensate for inflation and cannot offer adequate instructional programs similar to those found in larger districts, resulting in inequity in educational opportunities. This study sought to explain Michigan’s historical and current public school funding structures that exasperate Black and under-resourced districts’ HRM pressures, utilizing the integrated tenets of critical race theory (CRT) and critical policy analysis (CPA) to understand how history has affected policy creation and implementation of funding.
04
Perceptions of School Finance Equity in Michigan [pending]
This study examines the perceptions of equity within school finance. This analysis is a part of a more extensive quantitative study that examines structural racism and discrimination embedded in Michigan public school funding (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).
