The Color of Money

Abstract

This article explores the roles of racism and Whiteness in the decentralized governance structure and practice of a weighted student formula funding policy in an urban, West Coast school district. Specifically, it examines the ways in which a racialized struggle for fiscal authority played out at one urban high school where the immense racial disparities in education and achievement were starkly highlighted. The analysis of this struggle is framed by Critical Race Theory and suggests that Whiteness operates as a form of property that maintains White racial dominance in schooling and achievement.