This report discusses a variety of legal, fiscal, historical, and theoretical issues related to alternative school finance mechanisms, with emphasis on their possible application in Alabama. The authors do not attempt to suggest specific approaches to school finance reform, but rather to provide information for use in public decision-making. In particular, the report (1) surveys various state school finance programs, emphasizing the different ways of measuring school district wealth and methods of determining local effort, (2) establishes a legal framework for school finance reform in Alabama through a comprehensive review of court cases related to school finance, (3) analyzes recent school finance reform legislation in Florida and Kansas to assess their adaptability for use in Alabama, (4) reports the results of a nationwide survey of how school district wealth was measured and how local effort was computed, and (5) discusses the views of school finance authorities and the implications of court precedents as they relate to the Alabama Minimum Program. (Author/JG)