Reparations for Black Communities Through Educational Reform

Introduction

The concept that we all have an equal chance to earn the kind of wealth that gives meaning to the Declaration of Independence's bold phrase "liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness" is the core of the American Dream. The American Dream implies that a person can be a homeowner, create a business, and build savings for future generations. However, the U.S. government's decisions to deny Black Americans the opportunity to accumulate wealth have consistently nullified this concept (Ray & Perry, 2020). In the United States today, stark race-related inequities exist across the whole spectrum of the human condition. African Americans have shorter life spans, lower earnings, and less access to high-quality healthcare than white Americans. When it comes to education, however, the disparities are especially pronounced. Because education is the key to addressing the variety of other issues confronting the African American community today (Klinenberg, 2019; Longo, 2007), identifying opportunities to address this issue directly is critical. This paper therefore examines educational reform in the United States through an anti-racist and anti-oppression perspective, focusing on reparations as a means of addressing racism and structural oppression.

The Case for Reparations

The atrocities carried out during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the era of slavery, segregation through Jim Crow laws, and ongoing discrimination against African Americans have led many historians, educators, civil rights activists, legislators, and citizens to argue that descendants of enslaved people are entitled to reparations (Feagin & Ducey, 2018). These reparations are intended to restore, to the extent possible, the immeasurable harm caused by segregation, slavery, and discrimination — harms that continue to contribute to African American inequality and injustice (Franke, 2019). Property (promised but never delivered after the Civil War ended in 1865), cash transfers, and government initiatives to address poverty, education, and healthcare are all rights that African Americans have long been denied.

Vocal opponents of reparations, however, argue that they promote victimization, aggravate racial tensions, deny the socioeconomic progress made in the African American community since 1964, establish a moral hazard by forcing present-day Americans to pay for their forebears' actions, and pose serious practical and logistical challenges (Steele, 2015; Williams, 2019). According to critics, reparations supporters also misunderstand historical facts and minimize the role of African governments in the slave trade. Additionally, the emphasis on group identity is said to portray all Black people as victims and all white people as oppressors (Williams, 2019).

Educational Reparations and Their Sufficiency

Proposed reparations programs for African American descendants of enslaved people include formal apologies, public recognition of historical injustice and its current manifestations, direct individual payments over time, trust funds for youth, community-wide programs to invest in education and infrastructure, affordable housing, and access to trauma counseling and therapy (Corlett, 2016). Reparations targeted specifically at the education sector are referred to here as educational reparations. There is a well-documented inequality between Black and white schools — a disparity clearly attributable to systemic racism. These financing inequities date back to the so-called "separate but equal" era, codified in U.S. law by the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Educational reparations are an important component of reparations initiatives, but they are not sufficient on their own. The harm caused by slavery and its lasting social legacy is substantial — it cannot be remedied by a single program. Experts note that reparations programs help establish and maintain national awareness of America's racial history through education (Ewing, 2018; McKeown, 2021). The minoritization and dehumanization of Black Americans, which devalues their identity, social standing, and collective memory, has contributed to poor identity development, chronic stress, low self-esteem, and psychological suffering — including a lack of awareness of intergenerational trauma and ongoing discrimination.

Reparations can help both perpetrators and victims demonstrate accountability and foster a constructive, respectful relationship grounded in equal citizenship, recognition, social standing, and civic trust (McGary, 2010). When genuine expressive reparations are paired with material contributions, reparations programs can give both victims and perpetrators a path forward — helping them work together constructively toward mutual goals.

Possible Strategies for Educational Reparations

Reparations are needed in part because Black schools receive less funding even though Black homeowners often pay higher property tax rates than white homeowners. Reform can be implemented by altering how Black homeowners are taxed and how schools in Black communities are funded. This argument draws on research from school finance and education law specialists who have spent decades studying racial disparities in education (Green III et al., 2021). To redress racial inequities in education, a four-part reparations framework is proposed, addressing local property taxes, school revenues, targeted financing to bridge student performance gaps, and federal monitoring.

Housing segregation is a major factor in racial funding disparities. This historical division has produced significant differences in housing values and the wealth accumulated by families, which in turn affects how much money can be raised for local public schools through property taxes. Because Black housing values are lower on average, higher tax rates are frequently imposed to generate comparable municipal revenue — a burden referred to here as the "Black Tax" (Green III & Baker, 2021). Even with higher tax rates, Black communities in the same state or metropolitan region do not generate the same property tax revenue to fund their public schools, and the rates required to close these gaps would be prohibitively high.

Under this framework, Black homeowners in formerly redlined or otherwise segregated neighborhoods would receive direct reimbursements in amounts calculated to offset the Black Tax. These rebates would place money in the hands of Black homeowners, enabling them either to build savings or to invest more in their local public schools.

State general assistance programs, which aim to ensure that all schools receive equal funding, frequently fall short. This is because districts serving predominantly Black students have less taxable wealth. While districts with higher percentages of Black students do receive more in state general funding than predominantly white districts, the amounts are insufficient to close the revenue gap. Supplemental state subsidies directed to Black school districts could help bridge this disparity.

From graduation rates to college enrollment and standardized test scores, funding levels demonstrably affect school quality and student outcomes. School finance reforms have been shown to benefit Black students in particular, and the research evidence on this point is increasingly clear. Equitable and adequate funding for public education is a prerequisite for ensuring that all children have a genuine and equal opportunity to succeed.

State school funding formulas typically include weighted cost adjustments for variables such as the share of students living in poverty or the number of children with disabilities — recognizing that educating these students requires additional resources (Green III & Baker, 2021). Given the governmental policies that have produced racial isolation and the economic disadvantage of Black schools and districts, the racial composition of a school's enrollment should also be incorporated as a factor in state funding formulas, as the evidence and related studies support.

Some state aid programs worsen racial funding gaps, and some are built on the very discriminatory practices that created those gaps in the first place. Federal audits of state school funding systems are advised to identify widespread racial discrimination and any policies that deepen racial inequities. Because states have demonstrated an unwillingness to lead these reforms independently, federal oversight and support are essential.

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Case Law

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).