Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Transformative Education and Social Change

Committee Chairperson

John Elmore, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jason Wozniak, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Dana Morrison, Ph.D.

Abstract

Throughout this thesis I confront inequity in its pervasive and far-reaching form of American K-12 school finance. By analyzing the inequitable school funding practices of funding formulas and debt repayment structures, I explore how past and present-day school funding practices have evolved through the values and modes of racial capitalism and more recently, neoliberalism. Through Critical Action Research, I challenge the hegemonic hold racial capitalism and neoliberalism have on school funding by critiquing the educational practices and relations it helps produce. Despite the pernicious scale of inequitable school funding practices, Critical Action Research allows for imagining and shaping an education otherwise. To challenge school funding inequity includes challenging the academic and social relations it permits in the classroom. Therefore, my plan centers around developing critical consciousness and civic engagement in the face of their educational and economic realities. High school students interested in social justice and community engagement can participate in a U.S. Government course designed to challenge school funding inequity by providing students an opportunity to co-participate as critical researchers in their communities through Youth Participatory Action Research. As a result, the proposed plan intends to provide students with the language, tools, and community necessary for youth to critically engage in more democratic and just communities and schools.

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