The 1995 South Dakota State Legislature enacted a new state aid to education formula. This memorandum is designed to provide background information on the formula. The repeal of the formula in existence at the time and replacement with a different formula was the product of several factors. Some of those factors were: (1) the inclusion of a new…

Although the Oregon Legislature has succeeded in creating a funding formula that equalizes per pupil spending, it is struggling with budgetary inadequacies. There is no dedicated funding source for schools, voters have enacted further property-tax limitations, and some schools have had to cut programs and staff every year. Nevertheless, Oregon's…

Summarizes Kentucky's progress toward educational equity, concentrating on (1) the Kentucky Supreme Court's 1989 decision declaring the state's educational finance system unconstitutional and (2) a description and preliminary evaluation of the state's new four-part funding formula featuring pupil weighted averages for expenditure by wealth…

A 1990 lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Illinois' school-finance system was dismissed twice by lower courts and finally by the state supreme court in 1996. Lacking pressure to change, the legislature failed to pass necessary educational adequacy, equity, and tax-relief legislation. The status quo prevailed. (Contains 10 references.)…

Analyzes two new state funding programs for low-wealth and small-enrollment schools in North Carolina, compared with funding distribution provided under the already existing Basic Education Program. The distribution of low-wealth funds among counties is erratic, and the small-school funding program benefits some small-enrollment counties with…

The rationales for various state-finance distribution formulas, from 1896 to the present, are explained along with the rationales of the lawsuits questioning their validity. Chapter 1 describes attempts at financial equity from 1896 to the 1950s. Chapter 2 examines the current status of financing public education, emphasizing a state's obligation…

Minnesota Statutes 2003, Section 127A.51, reads as follows: Section 127A.51 Statewide average revenue. By October 1 of each year the commissioner must estimate the statewide average adjusted general revenue per adjusted marginal cost pupil unit and the disparity in adjusted general revenue among pupils and districts by computing the ratio of the…

The fight over school funding in most states involves a long battle in the courts that may span several years and never have a definitive endpoint because resistance to adequate funding of public schools appears to be endemic to government processes. The "DeRolph" case, first filed by the plaintiffs in December 1991, is one such legal…

Instead of adopting an entirely new school finance system to replace an inequitable system threatened by lawsuits, the Arkansas legislature has chosen to repair Act 34 of 1983. Two major changes enacted in 1993 (recalculation of state aid for districts experiencing growth and a change in a district's real property charges when calculating state…

Information is provided on the budgeting formula developed for funding Alaska's community colleges. After the history of formula budgeting is discussed, its purposes are highlighted (i.e., to provide equity of funding among the community colleges; to reduce uncertainty in and to simplify the budgeting process; and to provide for more local…

Identifies current problems and education issues confronting the Indiana legislature and predicts some issues the upcoming session will likely consider. A new "reward for effort" tax-base formula has resulted in urban districts receiving the lowest share of state revenue and rural districts the highest. Funding for textbooks, bilingual…

A recent study revealed deficiencies in the long-awaited "Abbott v. Burke" ruling, which benefited 28 inner-city districts and shortchanged poor rural and middle-wealth districts. By ignoring these groups of districts, New Jersey lawmakers have sown the seeds of taxpayer backlash, as evidenced by two recent lawsuits. (Contains 23…

Employs school funding formulas enacted under Georgia's Quality Basic Education Act to explore changes in interdistrict equity over time. Regarding overall distribution of per-pupil resources across districts (horizontal equity) and for special- needs students (vertical equity), dispersion measures approach Odden and Picus' suggested equity…

A recent study found no evidence of inadequate state-aid general funding for Oklahoma's mandated elementary class size requirements as they became more restrictive during implementation phases. Over the years, state aid increased on a per-simulated-class basis for grades K-6. State-aid distribution equity also increased. (MLH)

This paper explores the impact of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990 on the funding and allocation of resources to special education. Overall, the results indicate that the revenues generated for the special education system by KERA are approximately equal to marginal costs of special education services statewide. However, there is…