Name: Emile

Social Justice Group: Funding Inequality in NYC Public Education (A)

Date of Fieldwork: December 19, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Kate Quardfordt

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:

On December 19 we interviewed Kate Quarfordt. Kate Quardfordt co-funded a charter school called ‘’City School of the Arts.” In this interview we learned about how difficult it was to be in charge of a school with strained resources. Another thing we learned was that a lot of the school funding comes from property taxes and that bigger and nicer houses pay more property taxes. She also said that it is possible to go to schools that aren’t in your zoning but they are harder to get into.
Kate also talked about how housing taxes go more towards elementary and middle school. Kate teached us about how charter schools receive money from the state and not from taxes. Something else I learned is that Charter schools can be more innovative and be creative with their curriculum but only receive 80% of the funding that regular public schools receive.

Something else that I learned during this interview is that zoning laws makes it more likely you will go to school with kids That have similar experiences and are similar. This means that depending on your zoning you will go to school with similar people. Another Thing that Kate taught us is that the American Dream is that you go to school then college and that you will live a nice life.