Is Gentrification Increasing Per-Pupil Funding for the Low-Income Students?

• In Event: Issues in PK–16 Education Funding

Abstract

Gentrification makes it possible for low-income schools to improve through an increase in per pupil spending. Using data from the American Community Survey, the Annual Survey of School Systems Finances, and the Common Core of Data, a multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) shows that there is a relationship between gentrification and per pupil spending within K-12 public school districts in the United States from the 2009-2010 to 2014-2015 school years. The relationship between funding and gentrification is more important at the school level, although county level is still important. Furthermore, gentrification is significantly associated with increased per pupil property tax revenue in school districts where low income students were not displaced, but this is not true in other school districts.

Author

• Elizabeth Iris Rivera Rodas, Montclair State University