Shaped by the State: Public Investment, Spatial Injustice, and Access to Equity Engines

Most low-income students attend college in-state and close to home. Yet, the quantity and quality of colleges vary widely between states. In this paper, I investigate why some states have many “Equity Engines,” 4-year colleges that are both accessible to and effective at serving low-income students, while others have none. Drawing on a unique dataset, I use linear regression to estimate the relationships between key state characteristics and access to Equity Engines. I find that differential access to Equity Engines is primarily shaped by differences in state funding level and political context, with less consistent associations to histories of desegregation.