Improving Public High Schools: Evidence from New York (Report‪)‬

Background In recent years, state courts around the US (e.g., Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, North Carolina, and Texas) have ruled that the standard reliance on local taxes for financing local public schools violates state constitutional requirements for equity in education (Farney 2005). Poor districts, it was reasoned, are unable to generate the necessary taxes to provide a minimally acceptable education, and the courts have ordered state officials to augment local funds with state funding for remediation. These rulings, however, presume that the poor educational outcomes observed for schools located in economically disadvantaged areas result from deficiencies in spending.