Marketing School Quality From Above and Below: Bond Markets, School Finance, and Educational Inequality

• In Event: Persistence of Unjust Systems: The Consequences of Sustained Inequality

Abstract

This paper, part of a dissertation on public schools and the unequal growth of postwar suburban Massachusetts, explores the emerging bond market and school finance. By 1950, municipalities across Greater Boston increasingly turned to bonds to finance new schools for growing numbers of predominantly white, school-aged children. As a fiscal strategy, bonds were an appealing way to raise capital without increasing local taxes. As an educational strategy, however, bonds linked suburban school quality to the municipality’s demographic and socioeconomic profile. While national bond markets rated the risks, those at the grassroots played up their credit worthiness, with potent consequences for the long-term links between school finance, local governance, and inequality across both suburban and metropolitan landscapes.

Author

• Amy Wilson, New York University