"Tenuous at best" is too strong of a term, there is a
lot of debate on that.
Though it is I think broadly acknowledged that simply throwing money at the problem won't solve anything. The Brookings Institute side of the argument even acknowledges that. [1]
However, the Brookings Institute does argue for long-term state education finance reforms changes, with linked studies that show some improvement with overall school performance, with funding equalization structures. Another Brookings article [2] argues for spending on resources that matter where they are lacking, particularly well-qualified teachers and high-quality curriculum. Seems reasonable to me.
That does not change the socioeconomic factors that also are a large factor in current school performance. This is unfortunately a lot harder to solve.
But it's not going to be solved by being too broad in scope. "One school was 100% Asian-American and a neighboring school was 100% white" is too broad. After all, Appalachian whites currently have an educational gap, and Cambodian Americans currently having an educational gap. There are many other factors involved in school performance, such as socioeconomic status, parental and community involvement, etc.
[1] https://www.brookings.edu/research/its-not-nothing-the-role-...
[2] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-...