The Role of State Funding in School Desegregation: Evidence From St. Louis

• In Event: In the Wake of Brown: Local and State Imposition of and Interposition to Diversity Laws

Abstract

In recent years, an extensive body of evidence has documented the positive effects of racial integration for students of color. In this project, we investigate a school desegregation policy reversal in St. Louis County, Missouri, scrutinizing subsequent impacts to school funding, transfer student enrollment, and school-level diversity. We find that declines in state reimbursements for school desegregation efforts reduce school transfer student enrollment and harm school-level student racial diversity. In light of strong evidence documenting how school-level diversity improves the outcomes of racial minority and majority students, it is critical that states and districts recognize the ways in which their policies, intended or otherwise, reinforce or weaken desegregation efforts, particularly in the absence of judicial capacities to mandate such changes.

Authors

• J. Cameron Anglum, Lehigh University

• Haisheng Yang, Abt Associates

• Aaron Park, Saint Louis University