Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

Investigates the viability of State action theories and analyzes the distinction between the public and private sectors of higher education by investigating the case law on the State action doctrine as applied to private higher education. (Author)

Examines the "Levittown" case in which the Nassau County Supreme Court of New York declared the state's school financing statute invalid under both the New York and the United States constitutions. Available from New York University, 249 Sullivan Street, New York, New York 10012. (Author/IRT)

This paper describes the research that has been required to develop the factual evidence for challenges to inequitable school finance laws and for defenses of school finance reform legislation in Oregon and Wisconsin. Both the challenge to and the defense of school finance legislation use an analytical framework that focuses on the following…

Examines Wisconsin's school finance system in light of recent legislation and the education clause in the state constitution. Argues for judicial involvement to correct the finance system. Available from Marquette Law Review, 1103 West Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233. (IRT)

The implications of the "Serrano-type" court cases are slowly making an impact on State school finance structures. Nearly every State has just completed or is undertaking a study of public school finance problems. Although the impetus for change is coming from the courts, the real work is being accomplished by the governors, legislators, and staff…

This paper outlines the historical background leading to the California Serrano vs Priest decision, discusses the implications of that decision, and suggests what might be done to fashion the elements of a State aid formula to meet the tests of equity and fairness demanded by Serrano. The author presents the various equalizing formulas and…

This summary provides an overview of developments in school finance litigation since the United States Supreme Court's historic and lamentable 1973 ruling in "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" that wealth-based discrimination in educational expenditures does not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to…

This paper traces the arguments and effects of both the Serrano and Rodriguez decisions and examines the state litigation and legislation spawned by them. The author notes that while the pace of school finance reform litigation has slowed, it has not halted altogether. It is now more tailored to the characteristics of the individual states…

In this landmark educational finance opinion (presented here in full) the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Texas case was not a proper case in which to examine a State's laws under standards of strict judicial scrutiny. That test, according to the Court, is reserved for cases involving laws that operate to the disadvantage of suspect classes or…

This handbook provides answers to questions that state department program access coordinators most frequently ask when involved in evaluating for accessibility for handicapped persons and when developing changes to ensure that departmental programs and activities are equally effective and accessible to persons with disabilities. The handbook…