With rising state and local revenues--and significant one-time federal funds in 2020-21 and 2021-22--California policymakers now have greater capacity to invest in public schools. At the same time, longstanding racial and income disparities motivate calls to provide funding more efficiently and equitably. This policy brief is adapted from Julien…

School vouchers are defined as certificates of government funding that are allocated to students and intended to defer the cost of tuition at a private school of the student or the student's parents' choice. With strong views on opposing sides, the issue of school choice and the corresponding use of vouchers has certainly been catapulted into the…

Ten years have passed since New York's highest court ruled in the landmark school-funding and educational-rights case, "Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) v. State of New York," that the state was violating students' constitutional right to the "opportunity for a sound basic education" and ordered significant reforms of the…

Conservative governors and legislators across America are angry at the third branch of government. Some of these lawmakers are pushing legislation that could throw judges off the bench, while others are pushing to limit judicial authority. In one state, a governor unilaterally removed a justice of the state supreme court. Another Republican…

The United States Congress' Southern Congressional Delegation promulgated the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, popularly known as the Southern Manifesto, on March 12, 1956. The Southern Manifesto was the South's primary means to effectively delay implementation of public school desegregation as ordered by the United States Supreme Court…

In January 2013, the governor proposed a new funding model for California school districts called the Local Control Funding Formula. As the Legislature debates the proposed new funding model for schools, which is expected to start in the 2013-14 fiscal year, the author thought it would be a good time for a history lesson in California school…

Spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public-school funding, the United States now spends more per student on K-12 education than almost any other country. Yet American students still achieve less than their foreign counterparts, their performance has been flat for decades, millions of them are failing, and poor and minority…

This article presents Kentucky's education finance and governance profile. Kentucky is home to approximately 4,241,474 people according to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. This represents 1.41% of the entire U.S. population. In terms of education spending, for the 2007-08 school year, Kentucky spent an average of $8,839 per pupil. Overall…

This article presents the state education finance and governance profile of Florida. The state of Florida has 67 regular school districts as well as additional special districts comprised of developmental research schools and other schools that serve special populations. In 1973, the Florida Legislature adopted the Florida Education Finance…

This overview provides a synthesis of a comprehensive survey of school finance programs in the 50 states conducted in 2006-07. Information was provided by chief state school finance officers or persons with expertise in a state's public school funding-allocation system. Brief descriptions of the major Pre-K-12 funding formulae, district-based…

This article asserts that although there has been a consistently increasing demand on both the national and state levels for alignment of resources (inputs) to improved student outcomes (outputs), the lack of a systematic and well-defined policy portfolio has limited reform effectiveness. This article specifically examines the overreliance on…

Massachusetts is meeting its constitutional requirement to provide students with an adequate education and does not have to overhaul its school funding formula, the state's highest court ruled in a closely watched case in February 2005. The February 15 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court surprised many observers, who had expected…

California's school finance system is long overdue for reform. The authors propose a new system that is more rational, more equitable, and, they believe, politically feasible. At its core, their proposal aims to link district revenue to student needs and regional costs while ensuring that all districts are held harmless at current funding levels.…

Indiana's school funding formula was developed in response to a lawsuit challenging the state's educational system's constitutionality. A reward-for-effort formula sets each school corporation's per-pupil noncategorical revenue, general fund property tax rate, and percentage of state aid. Funding for alternative education is planned for 1997. (MLH)

Addresses litigation launched by a wealthy school district against the Alberta (Canada) Ministry of Education, regarding legislation to increase fiscal equity among school systems. Reviews the concept of fiscal equality, financial plans to achieve this goal, and the Alberta funding structure. Describes proposed changes to the School Act. The…