Advancing Equity With Policy
How to build fairer schools through smarter policy
Blog Posts
Jean-Pierre Jacob, M.Ed., MS, is a freelance policy writer and AP Biology Teacher.
Tag: news
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Because Vermont centralizes its education funding at the state level, it is frequently cited as one of the most equitable school finance systems in the United States. While the state has successfully eliminated wealth-based disparities in funding, the persistence of outcome gaps suggests that its education funding does not meet the goals of increased equity…
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Vermont offers a useful case study for policymakers, as its school finance system is often cited as one of the clearest examples of how court intervention can fundamentally reshape how public education is funded. Today, Vermont spends nearly $27,000 per pupil on education, second only to New York. For context, Vermont spends more than twice…
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Source: Senator Doug Mastriano via facebook Pennsylvania is currently facing a sustained decline in student academic performance, with recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showing continued erosion in both mathematics and reading scores. At the same time, the state is maintaining a teacher compensation system that is disconnected from teaching effectiveness. If…
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For the Per-Pupil Spending Chart: Smith, A. G., & Campbell, J. (2025, November 20). Table 1: K-12 public school funding per student in every state. Reason Foundation A common assumption in American education finance is that the quality of students’ education is a direct result of the dollars invested in their school building. For decades,…
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Executive Summary New York currently has an educational system in which access to rigorous STEM coursework is primarily determined by residential ZIP code, race, and class. This disparity in access is due to concentrated poverty and racial segregation, which have been driven by decades of exclusionary housing practices. These discriminatory public policies have resulted in…
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As discussed in my previous blog post, New York State is currently facing challenges with a high teacher turnover rate and a decreasing supply of new teachers. As seen in Figure 1, teacher retention is the lowest it has been in about a decade except for 20+ year teachers. This data matches up with the…
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If you’ve been in schools over the last decade, you’ve felt the shift in math learning. Teachers talk about it, students feel it, and families notice it. But when you look at the long-term data, the story becomes even clearer: math achievement in New York has declined significantly over the last 15 years, and the…
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Across the country, school districts are using academic tracking as a tool to tailor instruction to students’ perceived ability. These tracking systems sort students into high, middle, or low academic paths as early as elementary or middle school. On paper, academic tracking promises a fix to student scores backsliding since the COVID-19 pandemic (NAEP, 2024)…
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On January 29th, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order that mandated educational institutions eliminate DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. The Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling Executive Order recommended eliminating all federal funding sources that “support or subsidize the instruction, advancement, or promotion of discriminatory equity ideology”. This order prevents federal…
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Despite having one of the strongest K–12 systems in the nation, New Jersey’s higher education outcomes reveal persistent inequities. The six-year completion of post-secondary education rate is 61%, which places New Jersey 25th nationally and well behind nearby states such as Rhode Island (72%) and the District of Columbia (82%). Full-time students graduate at a…
Advancing Equity With Policy 