ERIC Number: ED530970
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Apr-7
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Review of "Fund the Child: Bringing Equity, Autonomy, and Portability to Ohio School Finance"
Baker, Bruce:
Education and the Public Interest Center
The newly released Thomas B. Fordham Institute report "Fund the Child: Bringing Equity, Autonomy and Portability to Ohio School Finance," is the latest in a series of reports promoting the implementation of decentralized governance of public schooling coupled with student-based allocation of revenues to schools. While the current report builds on prior efforts from Fordham and others, it differs in a number of key ways. Most notably, the current report suggests that Ohio should implement a fully state-funded system. Second, the current report avoids unfounded claims that research has found decentralized governance to necessarily improve student outcomes. Third, it takes a measured approach toward recommendations for implementing the reform, and it acknowledges the potential political influences that might compromise equity goals of weighted funding formulas. The report's primary weakness is its general failure to use research literature concerning within-and-between-district funding inequities and concerning factors associated with the costs of education that should be considered if a funding system is to be truly equitable. These oversights significantly compromise a central objective of the report's proposals--simultaneously resolving within- and between-district funding disparities. (Contains a combined list of notes and references.) [For the Thomas B. Fordham Institute report reviewed here, see ED502976.]
Descriptors: Funding Formulas, Educational Finance, Educational Equity (Finance), Political Influences, Literature, Equal Education, Access to Education, State Aid, Financial Support, Governance, Public Schools, Resource Allocation, Administrative Organization
Education and the Public Interest Center. School of Education, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-447-EPIC; Fax: 303-492-7090; e-mail: epic@colorado.edu; Web site: http://www.colorado.edu/education/centersoutreach/epic.html
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ohio
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Author Affiliations: N/A