The first part of this document consists of a report on the role played by familiar elements of American educational finance in perpetuating widespread and systematic denials of equal educational opportunity. The partnership among local, State and Federal resources for financing public elementary and secondary education is discussed with an analysis of the ways in which that system contributes to educational inequities. The report is in five sections: (1) a definition of equal educational opportunity; (2) a description of patterns of fiscal disparities that exist among and within school districts; (3) a discussion of the reasons for these disparities, examining the role of local, State and Federal programs; (4) an analysis of recent court cases resulting in the declaring unconstitutional systems of school finance in California and Minnesota; and, (5) suggestions for reform. The second part consists of a paper presented at the 1971 annual convention of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science based upon a study of the legal and fiscal dimensions of inequalities of educational opportunity; and, an analysis of the 1970 Census data on financial and demographic trends in the largest metropolitan areas of the nation. (Author/JM)