Mechanics of Unfairness: How We Undercut Poor Children’s Educational Opportunity

Although few children in the United States are literally starving to death, many are sitting before the educational equivalent of an empty plate while others, not far away, are enjoying full meals with all the trimmings. As Jonathan Kozol has said repeatedly, school funding is one of the few places where we tell children exactly what we think they are worth (see Hayden & Cauthen 1998; Kozol 1991, 2006). Per-pupil spending numbers suggest starkly different evaluations of children in affluent families, disproportionately white, and children growing up in poverty, disproportionately black and Latino.