The funding mechanism for the public schools in the state of Mississippi had been surprisingly stable for a number of years. The funding formula existed in its same form for over a half century before it was substantially changed in 1994 when the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) legislation was passed. This is the first external…

The document clarifies an originally proposed program to provide Statewide funding for public elementary and secondary education in Rhode Island by reviewing, stepwise, the actual operation of the plan for establishing tax levies and determining grant allocations; examines the anticipated effects of this proposed plan on the tax rates in…

A number of educational finance proposals suggest that the State become the primary collector and dispenser of revenue to support public education. Under such proposals the State would become, in effect, the employer for collective bargaining purposes. Accordingly, this paper deals with representation issues, the scope of bargaining, and problems…

In the Serrano decisions, the courts found California's method of financing schools to be unconstitutional and gave the state until September 1, 1980 to reduce wealth-based expenditure differences to substantially less than $100 per pupil. The courts found three features of the state's system to be particularly onerous--the failure of the state to…

Patterns of state aid for capital outlay and debt services range from full state assumption to no state participation. This paper, one of two related documents, examines current issues in state aid for capital outlay and then details five schemes employed by states that participated in the financing of local school building construction. The five…

This paper, one of two related documents, is a summary of research presented to the Arizona state legislature concerning the participation of various states in the financing of capital outlay for school building construction. Along with a description of the various support programs, consideration is given to the questions of who determines need,…

"Family support" describes the philosophy of the Michigan Public Mental Health System. Family Support is also the name of a Michigan program that provides the supports that parents of children with developmental disabilities need to keep their families together. Services include respite care, client services management, parent and…

This paper reports that most of the States have appropriated more dollars to support local education than would be required to cover inflationary increases. According to the author, the new money is being channeled into equalization and foundation programs, and States are starting to experiment with "district power equalization." In its simple…

This paper describes funding formulas for the new Foundation School Program in Texas enacted under the Education Opportunity Act (H.B. 72), raises issues that have accompanied its first year of implementation, and provides preliminary data to compare prior and existing law. The state finance system, which previously distributed state aid according…