The Role of Home Values in Linking Segregation and School District Funding Disparities

• In Event: Unpacking Education Production Pipeline: Government Spending, Allocation of Funds, and Household Invested

Abstract

Racial inequities in U.S. schools are deeply intertwined with racial segregation. Research documents a link between segregation and racial disparities in school district funding, particularly between Black and White students’ districts, which holds even after accounting for district SES differences. This study examines whether home value disparities may mediate the relationship between racial segregation and revenue disparities. Racial segregation, net of racial SES segregation, strongly predicts home value disparities. Home value disparities in turn have a positive relationship with local revenue disparities, but a negative relationship with total revenue disparities. These results suggest that home values may mediate the relationship between segregation and local revenue disparities, but that other factors drive the observed relationship between segregation and total revenue disparities.

Author

• David Loeb, University of Pennsylvania