"Synonymization" Threat, Equity, and the Funding of Districts With Relatively High Populations of Latinx Students

• In Event: School Finance Equity and the Challenge of Equal Opportunity

Abstract

We draw heavily on previous work by Author (2019) who coined the term ‘synonymization threat’ to illustrate the negative impact on communities placed at risk when policymakers conflate minoritized identities in resource allocation decisions. Author (2019) defined ‘synonymization’ as a policy threat that emerges when policymakers conflate two marginalized identities resulting in policies that ostensibly, but not actually, address biased structures. The focus of our paper is to describe the synonymization process and its implications for education funding for districts that serve relatively large portions of Latinx students. We extend Author’s (2019) synonymization threat framework to explore the implications for equity when poverty is conflated with Latinx status or when ethnicity is conflated with learning needs.

Authors

• Nicola A. Alexander, University of Minnesota

• Sung Tae Jang, The University of Hong Kong