Broken Windows and Catching Frogs: Multiple Forms of Community Activism That Prompted School Finance Reform

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Empowerment and Community Activism for Social Justice

Abstract

Economic theories and frameworks guide much of the policy discussion surrounding school finance. These traditional understandings, however, fail to properly attend to aspects of social context that are inexorably linked to inequities in school funding systems across the United States. The purpose of this paper was to examine the multiple forms of community activism in San Antonio, Texas that worked as to in initiate a specific school finance lawsuit. Historic methods, guided by a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework, were employed to analyze archival records and oral histories. This critical policy analysis revealed influences of labor organizing, traditional civil rights, and Chicano and student movements on the San Antonio v. Rogriguez school finance trial.

Author

• Erin Atwood, Texas Tech University