Are the Poor Concentrated in Poor School Districts?

Abstract

case, he observed, for assuming that the poorest people are concentrated in the poorest school (Supreme Court Reporter, 1973, Vol. 93, p. 1,291). No study, in any state, has adequately made the connection between poor people and poor school districts.2 At best, school finance analysts have addressed this issue by including in their analysis the median family income of the school district or the percent of families in the district who fall below the federal poverty line. Both statistics, because they do not measure the extent to which some poor people live in wealthy school districts and some rich people live in poor school districts, are misleading.