Every day, educational inequities shape and restrain the life trajectories of underprivileged youth across the country. A longstanding correlation exists between environmental and educational inequalities, yet it remains commonly overlooked. In an effort to illuminate this connection, Princeton undergraduate researcher Humnah Poonawalla and high school student Fatima Zohra Poonawalla embarked on a comprehensive research project. Their study critically examines the persistent educational inequities that permanently alter the lives of underprivileged youth across the state of New Jersey. Situated at the intersection of historical, legal, and environmental analyses, the research adopts a participatory action framework to illuminate how systemic inequities erect barriers to upward mobility and academic success for marginalized students, with a particular focus on how environmental disparities are highly correlated with educational inequalities. By centering the voices and agency of youth participants, Poonawalla and Poonawalla seek not only to deepen scholarly understanding of these disparities, but also to generate practical tools for advancing equitable educational policies and community engagement.

Research Questions and Rationale

The investigation is guided by three interrelated research questions:

1. In what ways do educational inequalities manifest across New Jersey, and how do these disparities concretely impede upward mobility for students from historically marginalized and under-resourced backgrounds?
2. How does amplifying the voices of underprivileged students through participatory, open dialogue foster foundations for dismantling educational disparities?
3. What is the relationship between environmental injustices and educational inequities, particularly in the context of marginalized communities disproportionately burdened by poor environmental conditions?

These questions emerge from a multidisciplinary understanding of educational inequity as a multifaceted phenomenon, shaped not only by economic and policy dimensions but also deeply rooted in the legacies of racial segregation and environmental injustice. New Jersey’s educational landscape provides a compelling microcosm of these challenges, where systemic factors such as racially restrictive housing policies, property tax funding disparities, and environmental degradation collectively inhibit equitable access to quality education. While existing literature extensively documents funding inequalities and achievement gaps, fewer
studies foreground the lived experiences and leadership of youth from marginalized communities as co-researchers and agents of change.

Methodological Approach

The study employs a participatory action research design embedded within the Leadership for Educational Liberation (LEL) program, a collaborative initiative by Salvation & Social Justice (SSJ) and the Latino Action Network Foundation. Nineteen youth Ambassadors from diverse New Jersey localities engaged in an intensive, year-long exploration of educational inequities through a historically grounded and community-centered curriculum, with help from facilitators Dr. Jessica Laus and Shadura Lee. The research process was anchored by a series of workshops and interactive activities that integrated:

● Historical analysis of racially restrictive covenants, redlining maps, and the Great Migration’s demographic shifts

● Critical examination of landmark legal cases such as the Abbott decisions, which highlight judicial efforts to address school funding disparities

● Investigation of New Jersey’s property tax system and its implications for educational finance inequities

● Exploration of environmental justice issues, including the disproportionate exposure of marginalized communities to pollution and poor air and water quality

Findings and Analytical Insights

The study’s findings reveal a complex and deeply intertwined nexus of structural forces sustaining educational inequities across New Jersey. Firstly, the legacy of housing segregation, exemplified by historical redlining and racially restrictive covenants, continues to spatially concentrate poverty and limit access to well-resourced school districts. This spatial segregation manifests in stark disparities in school funding, primarily due to reliance on local property taxes, which disproportionately disadvantages students in under-resourced, predominantly Black and Latinx communities. 

Secondly, environmental injustice emerges as a critical yet often overlooked contributor to educational disparities. Data and participant testimonies highlight that marginalized communities face elevated exposure to environmental toxins, poor air quality, and unsafe water, factors which have well-documented adverse effects on children’s cognitive development, attendance rates, and overall academic performance. These environmental burdens thus
exacerbate educational inequities by directly impairing students’ health and learning capacities.

Thirdly, amplifying youth voices through structured dialogue and participatory research proved essential in fostering critical consciousness and collective agency among Ambassadors. The creation of the toolkit, Creating The Table: How to Facilitate Dialogue In Your Space, exemplifies how youth-led initiatives can translate historical knowledge into actionable frameworks for community engagement. This toolkit empowers students to contextualize their lived experiences within broader structural forces, promoting peer-to-peer education and advocacy that challenge prevailing narratives and structural inertia.

Implications for Policy and Social Justice

The implications of this study are both profound and far-reaching. By elucidating the historical and environmental determinants of educational inequity, the research underscores the necessity of comprehensive, multi-sectoral policy approaches that transcend narrow educational reform agendas. Specifically, equitable school funding must be decoupled from racially and economically segregated property tax bases, and instead grounded in state-level redistributive mechanisms that prioritize historically underserved communities.

Moreover, the inextricable link between environmental justice and educational outcomes calls for integrated interventions that address community health and infrastructural issues alongside school reform. This approach aligns with emerging frameworks in environmental health and educational policy that advocate for holistic strategies recognizing the social determinants of learning.

Perhaps most importantly, the participatory framework of this study illustrates the transformative potential of centering youth agency in educational justice movements. Empowering students as researchers, storytellers, and advocates cultivates sustainable, grassroots leadership that can catalyze systemic change from within communities. The toolkit developed through this project offers a replicable model for fostering dialogue and solidarity, essential steps toward dismantling entrenched educational disparities.

Conclusion

This research affirms that educational inequities in New Jersey are not isolated phenomena but rather manifestations of enduring systemic injustices rooted in historical segregation and compounded by environmental degradation. Through collaborative, historically informed, and youth-centered inquiry, this study emphasizes that sustainable change must be both informed by the past and propelled by the voices of those most affected. Researchers Humnah and Fatima Zohra Poonawalla sincerely hope that the youth’s collaborative efforts in the state of New Jersey can be applied to result in large-scale change on the national level.