Zoned Inequality: Housing Policy in Educational Access and Economic Mobility
In
Capstones - Spring 2026
This policy paper looks at how New Jersey's past policies created today's inequities in educational opportunity, and makes the case for reforming how we fund education alone to resolve historically based disparities caused by where people reside. It reviews major court decisions regarding housing policy, such as Abbott v. Burke, as well as the Mount Laurel Doctrine, and compares them to Connecticut's Sheff v. O'Neill litigation regarding representation of children in racially mixed districts who attend school outside of their residential communities. It provides examples of current policy efforts and describes their shortcomings. It proposes three separate, yet related reforms: (1) expand inclusionary zoning with mandatory proximity to high performing schools; (2) adjust district boundary line configurations to better reflect racial demographics of districts; and (3) reset New Jersey's School Funding Reform Act to include an additional weight for children from historically redlined neighborhoods to address housing-related disadvantage. Collectively these suggested reforms seek to enable children to achieve their economic and educational success independent of where they live.
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