This article uses the case of independent charter schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to test whether New Public Management style reforms are compatible with the public administration pillar of social equity. Using three years of data, the author identifies inequities in access and outcomes due to the structural differences between charter and traditional public schools. Structural differences include governance, admissions, and transportation policies. Overall, independent charter schools serve fewer Black pupils, are less accessible, but do obtain comparatively better achievement scores. The article concludes with suggestions on how metagovernance can be used to ensure social equity in decentralized governance reforms. The study demonstrates how social equity can be analytically evaluated in a governance reform environment, and provides guidance on how structural barriers to social equity can be overcome in complex governing networks.

本文以威斯康星州密尔沃基市的独立特许学校为例，检验新公共管理风格改革是否与社会公平的公共行政支柱相容。使用三年的数据，作者确定了由于特许学校和传统公立学校之间的结构差异而导致的入学和结果不平等。结构性差异包括治理、招生和交通政策。总体而言，独立特许学校服务的黑人学生较少，入学机会较少，但确实获得了相对较好的成绩分数。本文最后就如何使用元治理来确保去中心化治理改革中的社会公平提出了建议。该研究展示了如何在治理改革环境中对社会公平进行分析评估，