Author Description

The question of inequitable school funding presents a serious problem to both educators and advocates for the poor. This publication, parts of which have been used in a lawsuit challenging inequitable funding for New York City schools, underscores that the City's children are being shortchanged. They are increasingly segregated by race and poverty, and they have a lower rate of access to library books, microcomputers and other such necessary educational resources; there is no doubt that this can have a devastating impact on the educational lives of these children. As was stated in NEW YORK, THE STATE OF LEARNING: A REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR AND THE LEGISLATURE ON THE EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF THE STATE'S SCHOOLS (February 1994), "(The) analyses (in this report) reveal that those children who are most at risk of school failure received fewer resources than their more advantaged peers."