The Intersectionality of Educating Black Students in Michigan: Public School Finance, Racial Segregation, and Housing Policy

Abstract

This research applies critical race theory to investigate Michigan’s system for funding public schools, focusing on structural racism and discrimination embedded in education finance laws, housing policies, and residential and educational segregation. We find that the average Black student receiving free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) receives $411 less per pupil per year than the average White student receiving FRL and $783 less than the average White student who does not receive FRL. These disparities stem entirely from differences in locally sourced district revenues that are the result of vast differences in Black-White property wealth. On average, a one-percentage-point increase in a district’s proportion of Black students receiving FRL is associated with a $2,354 decrease in taxable value of property per pupil. Our analyses imply that a district enrolling 1,000 Black and FRL students would receive $1,364,000 less annually than an identically sized district with no Black or FRL students. This funding is sufficient to hire 21 additional teachers or to improve salaries, a proven method of improving the number and quality of applicants and retaining quality instructors. Through its continued reliance on local property taxation, the school finance system in Michigan is yet another example of how laws and policies reinforce structural racism and discrimination against Black students. Along with the research literature showing racism’s historical and continuing impacts on Black-White property wealth disparities, this study discerns a self-reinforcing system that relegates Blacks to a subordinate socioeconomic status regarding school finance, segregation and housing policy, and discrimination.