Public School Funding in the United States and Its Systemic Inequities

Abstract

Public school funding in the United States reflects the Jeffersonian and Madisonian view of the role of government as opposed to that of Alexander Hamilton. Unlike Western Europe as a whole, the federal government plays a relatively minor role, at least in terms of the percentage of funding: roughly only 8% of funding comes from the federal government as opposed to close to 50% from both the state and local governments. Local school districts jealously hold on to their fiscal and curriculum-content role, as can be seen recently in the heated, often physically aggressive debates at school district meetings regarding reading material and the teaching of critical race theory and transgender issues. The financial formulas in K-12 public school funding result in a “disparate impact” on educational opportunities for predominantly non-white districts compared with predominantly white ones, and even for high-poverty vs low-poverty districts in general. This paper will explore the basic features of public-school funding in the U.S. and the resulting inequities in funding, which also have demographic implications, and briefly touch on what can be done moving forward.