The process whereby appropriated federal funds for the campus-based student aid programs are allocated to the states and to postsecondary education institutions is reviewed. The three campus-based programs are the College Work-Study, National Direct Student Loan, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant student aid programs. Changes imposed…

The salary reduction plan for financing child care is of little benefit to taxpayers earning below 16,000 dollars because these working parents would receive equal or better value by using the child care tax credit. For income levels between 16,000 and 20,000 dollars, the salary reduction plan may have some marginal utility to working parents…

Reviewing literature on educational finance and law, this paper analyzes the rationale for the recent school finance reform movement and recounts the movement's progress from 1965 to 1979. An overview of the problem discusses state equalization programs' ability to provide financial equity and the relationship of financial equity to equal…

This document suggests how state boards of education can get a fair share of block grant monies from the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981. States' decisions regarding distribution of block grant monies involve three significant characteristics: (1) almost all states keep 20 percent of the grant (the maximum allowed) at the state…

School finance reform--traditionally based exclusively on school districts' access to funding--has been made difficult by fiscal retrenchment on one hand and the educational excellence movement on the other. Stating that school districts must consider the use as well as the availability of funds, this paper proposes a new definition of equity that…

Four propositions that have been advanced on the basis of verbal intuition are considered. They are given precise interpretation in a formal model and then disproved. The propositions concern intergenerational transfers through schooling; in particular, they concern equality-efficiency conflicts, net benefit calculation, and the role of genetic…

Evaluates estimates of full-value-equalization rates, using a study of 20 New York cities and their school districts to (1) show that these estimates contain significant errors, (2) discuss how these errors affect intergovernmental relations, and (3) analyze how they affect equity in financing local schools. (MCG)

Reexamines the merits of free public education in light of social and economic changes. Argues that funding schools entirely through taxes creates certain inequities and, therefore, that families with children in school should pay partial tuition, with adjustments according to family income. (MCG)

For the past several years, Marguerite Roza has led a series of Center on Reinventing Public Education studies on how school districts spend their money. Her reports have shown that school districts often do not know how their funds are allocated, and that common district practices often lead to lower spending in low-income neighborhood schools.…

Susan Castillo, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Oregon, named closing the achievement gap as a top instructional priority in Oregon. Superintendent Castillo notes three aspects to the achievement gap: (1) Performance gap: The discrepancies between the educational achievement and performance of students of diverse races, ethnicities, income…

Nebraska's small schools have been shortchanged by recently enacted school finance policies. LB 1114, which limited property tax levy rates, and LB 806, which changed the state aid distribution formula, were first implemented for the 1998-99 school year. These measures were intended to force cuts in school expenditures, especially among smaller,…

This paper summarizes the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) report, "Inequalities in Public School District Revenues." It focuses on: (1) the total dollar amounts of school-district revenues (federal, state, and local); (2) variations in total revenues available to local school districts within a state expressed in the 5th, 25th,…

Current school finance policy in Nebraska rests on the premise that higher costs due to small school size should not be subsidized by state funds unless there is no consolidation alternative. This report aims to reframe the school size debate by demonstrating the excellent performance of Nebraska's small schools in high school completion and…

Previous studies in seven states have shown that school and district size consistently mediated the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and student achievement, with results critically relevant to state-level policymaking. The present study examined how the relationship between size and achievement varied in Arkansas schools and…

In the effort to improve essential components of the Basic Education Program (BEP), the General Assembly has adopted legislation directing the BEP Review Committee to perform a comprehensive review of the funding formula, identifying needed revisions, additions, or deletions. This year, through a series of full-day meetings, the committee has…