ERIC Number: EJ1352253
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1557-3060
EISSN: EISSN-1557-3079
Available Date: N/A
Balancing State and Local Power over School Districts' Finances
Bowman, Kristine L.; Zuschlag, Dirk F.
Education Finance and Policy, v17 n3 p564-577 Sum 2022
During and for many years after the 2008-10 Great Recession, financial crises in districts across the country triggered varying state involvement in those districts' finances and governance, up to and including complete takeover. While these actions were most prominent in a handful of states, all states have laws that enable them to intervene in school districts' finances. These laws shape important governance relationships as well as the allocation of educational resources, yet we know very little about them. Accordingly, this policy brief reports our identification of 449 state statutory provisions across the country, which together contain 1049 potential interventions; our analysis of those provisions included identifying patterns, trends, and potential interactions with other areas of education policy. At a national level and disaggregated by state, we present "what" potential state interventions into school district finances already exist, which is a necessary foundation to understand "which" interventions a district could be subject to in the near future, and "how" states can both contextualize their policy approaches and best address districts' financial conduct and fiscal challenges going forward.
Descriptors: School Districts, Educational Finance, Financial Exigency, Economic Climate, State Legislation, Resource Allocation, Governance, Educational Policy, Intervention, Trend Analysis, Futures (of Society), School District Autonomy, State Government, Elementary Secondary Education, Educational Resources
MIT Press. 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. Tel: 617-253-2889; Fax: 617-253-1709; e-mail: journals-rights@mit.edu; Web site: http://www.mitpressjournals.org.bibliotheek.ehb.be/loi/edfp
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A