Chris Saldaña

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems 2026 An evaluation of the K-12 school finance systems of all 50 states and D.C.

New/Update for 2026 www.schoolfinancedata.org/the-adequacy...

The Cycle of Disinvestment in Public Schools: How Public-School Criticism Drives Policy and Disinvestment Critiques of public education have intensified, and while some reflect real needs for improvement, many are manufactured crises that portray schools as broadly failing. Centered on claims of underachi...

Just released: The Cycle of Disinvestment in Public Schools: How Public-School Criticism Drives Policy and Disinvestment bit.ly/4rhKWO4

Re-thinking Adequacy: From Educational Minimums to Educational Justice Abstract. Educational adequacy studies have emerged as valuable tools for determining the costs associated with meeting state constitutional duties for K-12 public education. However, approaches used ...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jefl/article-abstract/50/2/62/407189/Re-thinking-Adequacy-From-Educational-Minimums-to?redirectedFrom=PDF

If you have trouble accessing the article for teaching or research purposes, feel free to reach out to me at cmsaldana@wisc.edu.

This work is deeply informed by and connected to the Price of Opportunity project at the National Education Policy Center, led by Kevin Welner and Michelle Renée Valladares and an incredible team of scholars and community members.

1. Expanding indicators of educational opportunity and outcomes beyond test scores
2. Centering justice explicitly in adequacy analyses
3. Broadening expertise to include students, families, and communities
4. Adopting a systems perspective

We argue that adequacy study methodologies can be reimagined even within existing legal constraints. We propose four principles for transforming how this research is conducted.

My new article with Kathryn Wiley is now out in the Journal of Education Finance and Law. "Re-thinking Adequacy: From Educational Minimums to Educational Justice." 🧵

NEPC Talks Education: An Interview With Erica Turner and Bryan Mann About Demographic Change, Segregation, and the Future of School Equity University of Wisconsin‑Madison Assistant Professor Christopher Saldaña interviews Erica Turner and Bryan Mann about how demographic change is reshaping American schools and how current policy respons...

February's NEPC Talks Education podcast is here! @cmsaldana.bsky.social interviews @ericaoturner.bsky.social and @bryanmann.bsky.social about how demographic change is reshaping American schools and how current policy responses can promote equity and integration. bit.ly/3OjNEEO

Deadline approaching! Apply for a postdoc role studying the politics of education policy at Stanford GSE:
postdocs.stanford.edu/prospective/...

This WVA bill does everything but cap voucher and charter school, which may be contributing to school closures.

This WVA bill does everything but cap voucher and charter school, which may be contributing to school closures.

A variation of an education preserve:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

New bill could save West Virginia rural schools from consolidation share.google/nCWjgWNfrSBt...

Rethinking cause & consequence in U.S. school funding inequality: a future role for quant crit perspectives The goal of this review is to synthesize recent, methodologically and conceptually diverse bodies of literature addressing the cause and consequence o…

New article with @schoolfinance101.bsky.social rethinking cause and consequence in U.S. school funding inequality, highlighting how an emphasis on consequences has sidelined deeper, historical causes, and why QuantCrit offers a path forward. Please read/share!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Paradox of School Choice? Experimental Evidence on Choice Architecture, Anxiety, and Satisfaction - Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Huriya Jabbar, Fatima Varner, Gloria Stout, Kathleen Holloway, 2026 School choice policy is often touted as offering more choices to families whose school options are limited by traditional zoning. However, too many options or t...

This study started with a convo over coffee w/ Huriya Jabbar in 2017! We wrote two unsuccessful grant proposals, finally got internal funding, and then struggled through 4 journals to get the null findings published. Persistence and great colleagues for the win! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Congratulations, David. What an amazing and well-deserved honor!

It’s always an honor to engage with the scholars whose work informs and inspires your own. In this months NEPC Talks Ed podcast, I spoke with Drs. Roseann Liu and David Backer about their interdisciplinary approaches to critical school finance research. If you have a few minutes, give it a listen!!

On January 8, NEPC published my essay Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle over Educational Goals as its blog post of the day.
nepc.colorado.edu/blog/public-...

The Politics of Education Lab

To ring in the new year, I'm excited to announce the launch of the Politics of Education Lab (PEdL) at the Stanford GSE. The goal is to advance understanding of the political dimensions of education policymaking to help policymakers and practitioners strengthen school systems.

pedl.stanford.edu

We @wheelockpolicybu.bsky.social are hiring a director for our Policy-Aligned Research Agenda Buildling Lab (PARABL), to help education system leaders build research roadmaps to effect change in a particular area.

More info here:

wheelockpolicycenter.org/wp-content/u...

New article out in Educational Administration Quarterly! I examine why LAUSD's school board struggled to remove school police after George Floyd's murder, even while acknowledging racial harm. I introduce "abolitionist infrastructure" as a path forward. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Image displaying the cover of "Segregation and School Funding"

In SEGREGATION AND SCHOOL FUNDING, @mattdicarlo.bsky.social and @schoolfinance101.bsky.social reveal the cycle that keeps resource-starved schools at a perpetual disadvantage and show how to break it. Find out more in our Spring 2026 catalog: https://bit.ly/4obkP9M

A religious charter school fight is brewing in Tennessee and could challenge Supreme Court precedent Last month, the Tennessee Attorney General issued a legal opinion that the state’s ban on religious charter schools was “likely” unconstitutional. Days later, the Knox County school board was sued ove...

I got the chance to weigh in:

www.chalkbeat.org/tennessee/20...

THE CENTRE FOR HISTORY AND ECONOMICS IN PARIS Fellowships

Applications are invited for a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at our Centre in Paris, starting on 1 Sept 2026. The post is in connection with the research programme on economic & environmental history. Application deadline 19 Feb 2026. Click below for further particulars & how to apply.

AEFP is expanding our conference subsidies program to offer financial assistance to a broader membership base so that more researchers, policymakers & practitioners have the opportunity to connect at the conference. The deadline to apply is January 5, 2026 aefpweb.org/conferen...

Honored to have Dr. Givens on NEPC Talks Ed. His new book, American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation, boldly recenters Indigenous and Black Americans in the origin story of American K-12 schooling.

Utah Repeals Ban on Collective Bargaining for Teachers and Other Workers Gov. Spencer Cox approved the repeal of a policy experts called one of the country's most restrictive labor laws.

Utah Repeals Ban on Collective Bargaining for Teachers and Other Workers: Gov. Spencer Cox approved the repeal of a policy experts called one of the country's most restrictive labor laws.

Preserving Rural School Districts from the Threat of Vouchers and Charters: A Conversation with the Authors - Wisconsin Public Education Network Join us for a conversation with the authors of a new study, Preserving Rural School Districts from the Threat of Vouchers and Charters, to discuss the impacts of privatization on rural schools in Wisc...

Really looking forward to this event. www.wisconsinnetwork.org/events/prese...

Accountability or Austerity? Examining the Practice of K–12 Early Fiscal Intervention During Periods of Economic Crisis - Christopher M. Saldaña, 2025 Little research has examined how K–12 fiscal accountability policies and practices intersect with district finances and student outcomes during periods of econo...

Additionally, an analysis by @cmsaldana.bsky.social shows that fiscal austerity leads to cuts in spending and decreases in outcomes for students: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...