The Whiter, Richer School District Right Next Door
Public schools’ dependence on local property taxes means some districts get isolated from the financial resources in their communities.
by Adam Harris
Aug 01, 2019
3 minutes
The Waterbury School District is quarantined within man-made, invisible walls, partitions that hug it on each side, forming taut, if unnatural, boundaries on the map. The school district, in Waterbury, Connecticut, is touched by eight other districts, each one whiter, more affluent, and receiving more dollars than Waterbury itself. Take the Wolcott School District, for example, where 87 percent of students are white, and which spends $2,000 more per student than Waterbury, which is 82 percent nonwhite; or the Plymouth School District, which has a racial makeup that’s comparable
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