The Courts’ Consensus: Money Does Matter for Educational Opportunity

• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Date: 01 November 2017
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716217732311

184 ANNALS, AAPSS, 674, November 2017

DOI: 10.1177/0002716217732311

The Courts’

Consensus:

Money Does

Matter for

Educational

Opportunity

By

MICHAEL A. REBELL

732311ANN The Annals of The American AcademyThe Courts’ Consensus

research-article2017

Over the half century since the Coleman Report was

issued, there has been an extensive debate among

scholars, policy-makers, and the courts about the extent

to which “money matters” in education. This article

briefly reviews the relevant academic literature and

then analyzes the forty state court education funding

litigations that have considered whether there is a cor-

relation between educational expenditures and

improved student outcomes. I find that that there is

now an overwhelming consensus that, of course, money

matters—when it is used well. This result indicates that

policy-makers and judges should shift from continuing

a fruitless abstract discussion of whether money mat-

ters and concentrate instead on the significant account-

ability questions of what resources are needed to

provide all students a meaningful educational opportu-

nity and how these resources can best be used to maxi-

mize student success, especially for students from

poverty backgrounds and students of color.

Keywords: education finance; educational policy-

making; courts; money matters; Coleman

Report

Since the issuance of James Coleman’s 1966

report, Equality of Educational Opportunity

(Coleman et al. 1966), there has been a continu-

ing debate in the media, among researchers,

policy-makers, and in the courts about whether

increased expenditures for schools have a signifi-

cant impact on educational opportunity and

Michael A. Rebell is professor of practice in law and

educational policy at Teachers College, Columbia

University, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Law

School. He also was co-counsel for plaintiffs in Campaign

for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York, a case that is

discussed in this article.

NOTE: Esther Cyna, a doctoral student at Teachers

College, and Aaron Rogoff, a third-year student at

Columbia Law School, provided valuable research

assistance for this article, and Jessica Wolff contributed

her editing expertise.

Correspondence: Mar224@columbia.edu