A Multicase Examination of District Strategies to Reallocate School Police Dollars

• In Event: On Abolition: Education Policy, Activism, and Police-Free Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives
Recently, school districts have considered ways to reallocate dollars previously used for school police in order to reduce racial disparities in discipline and promote racial equity (Schwartz et al., 2021). Such organizational shifts can promote deep system change when implemented effectively (Weick & Quinn, 1999). However, little is known about districts’ reallocation strategies and how they align with racial equity pursuits.
In this multi-site study of 15 districts, I ask: To what extent does district reallocation of school police dollars advance racial equity goals? What rationales are present during reallocation? What are the racial equity implications of reallocation decisions?
Framework
To understand what might shape reallocation efforts, I use the racial capitalism framework (Robinson, 2000), which suggests resources are distributed along racial lines across institutions. In this study, this framework: assumes the racial stratification of surveillance and carceral resources; presents the racialized patterns in policing and discipline as expected outcomes; and frames expectations we might have of reallocation efforts in the absence of substantive organizational change. Additionally, I incorporate equity-mindedness (Bensimon, 2007) as a potential agitator to systems of racial capitalism. This framework interrogates which values shape reallocation decisions, and thus whether racial stratification might be challenged or reinforced in the process.
Methodology
In two phases of purposeful sampling (Creswell, 2018), I used interviews, documents, and observations to examine the reallocation decisions of 15 districts (phase 1) and, in two focus districts, the values shaping those decisions (phase 2). Phase 1 interviewees were head district financial leaders. Phase 2 interviewees were Reallocation Task Force members, including district personnel, school leaders, and community members. Participants were asked about their perspectives regarding the reallocation process, including the financial implications for their district.
I derived deductive codes from the conceptual framework, and inductive codes emerged as patterns concretized. I created district memos using coded data, after which I conducted cross-case matrix analysis.
Preliminary findings
Participants across positions want to reduce racial disparities in discipline. Yet, implementation is constrained by budgetary restrictions. Funds spent on police are insufficient to cover new preventive strategies (e.g., counselors), and districts often must commit new investments.
School leaders expressed concern about the usefulness of preventive strategies amid urgent challenges (e.g., gun on campus) or liability concerns (e.g., assault accusation). This suggests dissonance between racial equity ideals and the immediate support desired on campuses.
Participants warned that staff bias and school culture will continue to perpetuate discipline disparities, since police mostly responded to school staff who opted to enact that level of discipline. Participants noted resources should be directed toward hiring and professional development.
Significance
Through the reallocation of previous police dollars, districts have an opportunity to contend with how past spending decisions contributed to the school-prison nexus and reconsider their spending decisions through a racial equity lens. However, the reallocation process might reproduce racial inequity in new ways. Examining this process will advance empirical and practical knowledge on an understudied but consequential phenomenon, specifically how funding decisions shape the disciplinary cultures in K-12 schools.

Author

• Taylor Enoch-Stevens, University of Arizona
  Presenting Author