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Private financing in urban public schools: Inequalities in a stratified education marketplace
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Private financing in urban public schools: Inequalities in a stratified education marketplace

E. Rowe and L.B. Perry
The Australian Educational Researcher, Vol.47, pp.19-37
2019
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Abstract

This study examines inequalities of school funding as exclusively generated by the parent community in urban public schools, and potentially illuminates a secondary impact of between-school segregation. For schools that are largely understood as free, the substantial injections of private financing into public schools indicate a concerning tension for fairness and equity. Using a census dataset of all public schools in one Australian capital city (n = 150), we compare reported parent ‘contributions, fees and charges’ and how they are patterned by measures of school disadvantage and advantage. We found a statistically significant relationship between private financing and measures of school-based advantage or disadvantage, over a four-year period. Advantaged schools generate up to six times greater income in comparison to disadvantaged schools over a four-year period, and we argue that the substantial gaps function as another form of ‘compounded disadvantage’ for residualised public schools and a tiered effect of segregation.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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#10 Reduced Inequalities

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
6 Social Sciences
6.11 Education & Educational Research
6.11.345 Educational Reform
Web Of Science research areas
Education & Educational Research
ESI research areas
Social Sciences, general
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