This article examines how school and non-school policies interact to reinforce or disrupt school segregation in the context of suburban communities and how these systems are maintained by structural and institutional mechanisms. Methodologically, we use a case study approach to delve deeply into the interpretation and implementation of school…

Today, our schools are more racially segregated than at any time in the last 40 years, mainly because the neighborhoods in which they are located are themselves racially segregated. Yet, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2007 Parents Involved ruling, prohibited school districts from implementing even modest race-conscious desegregation plans. If…

Economically discriminatory zoning policies--which say that people are not welcome in a community unless they can afford a single-family home, sometimes on a large plot of land--run counter to American ideals and yet are pervasive in America. In most U.S. cities, zoning laws prohibit the construction of duplexes, triplexes, quads, and larger…

The nation's greatest anti-racist education policy -- school desegregation -- has proven no match for the adaptations of institutionalized racism. Over the last 40 years, school segregation has evolved and reemerged in housing patterns, school zoning policy, and curricular tracking. This has led to calls for new solutions to the problem of racial…

School desegregation and equitable access to educational opportunity takes alignment in the housing and education sectors. Racist housing policies and practices have systematically limited access to opportunity for generations of people of color, profoundly affecting their wealth, and perpetuating racial disparities in opportunity and well-being…

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…

The purpose of this "Equity by Design" brief is to provide information to parents, community members, and school district leaders and teachers about the relationship between housing policy and school policy. Specifically, this brief provides a succinct history of U.S. housing policy, discusses some current educational policies that…

The enduring condition of racial and ethnic segregation in schools and housing in metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut, is rooted in historical and contemporary racial discrimination and in practices and policies that exacted disparate harm on Black and Latinx people. School segregation both reflects and reinforces segregation in housing that was…

We indicate the size of family background effects in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia--countries that differ in both the rhetoric and extensiveness of the system-level school choice policies. Family background effect is defined as the dependence of student achievement on family background characteristics, such as parental education, income, and social…

Considerable prior analysis has gone into the study of zoning restrictions on locational choice and on fiscal burdens. The prior work on zoning--particularly fiscal or exclusionary zoning--has provided both inconclusive theoretical results and quite inconsistent empirical support of the theory. More importantly, none of this work addresses…

Social scientists offer competing theories on what explains the policymaking process. These typically include economic rationalism, political competition or power struggles, and policy imitation of the kind that diffuses across spatially proximate neighbors. In this paper, we examine the factors that have influenced a recent local policy trend in…

Location, location, location. This mantra of real estate agents and their clients alike is now the target of a new report from the Brookings Institution linking housing prices and zoning practices to effectively depriving low-income students of high-quality schools. Using test scores from schools in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the…

The first section of this paper surveys academic research on educational achievement with an emphasis on the relative effects of schools and families in shaping educational outcomes. A methodology section provides a summary of data sources and defines the main variables measured. The paper then examines differences in school test score performance…

The article focuses on the separation of certain understood rights of ownership and on the provision for the compensation or transfer of those rights to other property. The author reviews the use of this tool and suggests it as a potentially useful device to channel and guide development toward public policy goals. (Author)

Divided into four sections, this paper discusses the historical development of land-use control law and doctrine. Entitled "Genesis of the Zoning Mechanism", Part 1 discusses zoning in terms of: a by-product of urbanization: common law land-use controls (public and private nuisance laws); private property as restraint on land-use…