New Article: Housing and Educational Inequality: The Case of Long Island

Richard D. Kahlenberg, Housing and Educational Inequality: The Case for Long Island, The Century Foundation (June 1, 2023). Excerpt Below,

Many policymakers agree that housing and land use reform is a top priority, particularly in New York State, in order to moderate housing prices. But an often-overlooked point is that such reform is also important in order to promote equal educational opportunity.

Because most public school students are assigned to schools in the neighborhoods where they live, housing reform is also education reform—a point that a series of Century Foundation reports on different communities in New York State is seeking to emphasize. In early April, TCF published a case study showing how restrictive zoning policies inhibit educational opportunity in Queens.1 And now this report focuses on how exclusionary housing policies (such as bans on multifamily housing and minimum lot size requirements) reduce educational opportunities on Long Island. Two subsequent reports in this series will address the connection between housing and schooling in other areas in the state.