Document Type

Lecture

Publication Date

9-30-2025

Publisher

Brookings Mountain West

First page number:

1

Last page number:

27

Abstract

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presents a lecture titled, "Improving Schools to Promote Upward Mobility: The Promise and Limits of School Finance Reforms" by Brookings senior fellow in economic studies, Sarah Reber.

Systematic differences in access to high-quality schools by race, income, and other characteristics perpetuate inequality across generations. Local property tax financing of schools is often identified as a key cause of unequal educational opportunity. While the consensus of rigorous research supports the common intuition that, on average, “money matters” in improving educational outcomes, questions about how much, and under what conditions, school funding affects performance remain unresolved. To improve schools, should policymakers and advocates focus primarily on increasing funding, or are other reforms equally (or more) important?

In this lecture, Brookings Cabot Family Fellow in Economic Studies Sarah Reber explains how schools in the United States are funded, how that has changed over time, which schools have the least (and most) funding, and what it means for inequality and economic mobility.

Keywords

Socioeconomic status; Inequality; Poverty; School district; School spending

Disciplines

Education | Education Economics | Education Policy | Elementary Education | Finance | Income Distribution | Inequality and Stratification | Public Policy

File Format

pdf

File Size

8.4 MB

Run Time

01:02:12

Streaming Media

Language

English

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