Poor Communities, Poor Schools: Progressive-Era Tax Reform and the Rise of the District Property Tax in California

• In Event: 32.032 - Financial Matters: Tax Reform, Teachers' Pay, and Philanthropy

Abstract

This paper traces the history of public school funding in the nine counties of the SanFrancisco Bay Area before 1920. It explores the implications of Progressive Era tax reform for
school finance in the region and documents the recent vintage of the district property tax in this western state. In explaining why Progressive Era policymakers in California abandoned revenue sources that could be redistributed across school district boundaries and instead embraced the district property tax, this paper contributes to scholarship on the history of Progressive Era
education reform, school finance, and the nature of resource disparities between school districts.

Author

• Matthew G. Kelly, Stanford University