Property and Whiteness: Critical Understandings of School Finance Policy

• In Event: 31.092 - Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: 31.092-6 - Equity, Finance, and the Politics of Education

Abstract

Economic theories and frameworks guide much of the policy discussion surrounding school finance. Traditional understandings, however, fail to properly attend to aspects of social context and racial realties that are inexorably linked to inequities in school funding systems across the United States. The purpose of this paper was to employ Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework to construct a critical policy analysis of Texas school finance. Historic methods and discourse analysis were employed to analyze archival records and policy documents. This paper describes the finance system in Texas, then offers critical analysis of these policies including challenges to the normalized reliance on property as a source of revenue and examines issues of “whiteness as property” in the context of school finance.

Authors

• Erin Atwood, Texas Tech University

• Florencio Aranda, Texas Tech University