The report examines two communities in New York City's suburban Westchester County--Scarsdale and Port Chester--and the ways in which restrictive zoning impedes educational opportunities. The first part of this report examines how Scarsdale and Port Chester differ in their demographic makeups, home prices, and in the educational opportunities that…

This article traces the spatial history of New York City's geographic school subdistrict boundaries throughout the 20th century, exploring the historical relationship between race, space, and schooling in New York City and beyond. It seeks to both make the case for studying the spatial history of within-district education boundaries and put the…

Many school districts consider family preferences in allocating students to schools. In theory, this approach provides traditionally disadvantaged families greater access to high-quality schools by weakening the link between residential location and school assignment. We leverage data on the school choices made by over 233,000 New York City…

Many policymakers agree that housing and land use reform is a top priority, particularly in New York State, in order to moderate housing prices. But an often-overlooked point is that such reform is also important in order to promote equal educational opportunity. This report proceeds in five parts. The first part takes a deep dive into how two…

The widespread expansion of school choice policies has bolstered the consumer-education paradigm where parents compete for what they perceive to be a limited number of high quality schools. In this comparative case study, we examine advantaged White parents' perceptions of meritocracy in the context of a competitive elementary and high school…

While school choice has been well studied, there is little existing research exploring the role of transportation, in general, and school buses, in particular, to school choice decisions. We examine the effect of school buses on school choice decisions using data on kindergarten students and their eligibility for transportation assistance in New…

At a time when voters are keenly focused on the cost of living, housing affordability has become a hot political issue in many parts of the country, including New York State. Policymakers, grappling with what they can do to make housing more affordable, are actively seeking to reform longstanding local exclusionary zoning laws, policies that…

In New York City, the Trust for Cultural Resources legislation continues the direction taken by incentive zoning by trading unused or underused air space with developers for certain public amenities. Since the legislation could easily be expanded, it could drastically affect the physical character of the city. (JMD)