While there is an extensive literature analyzing the relative equity of state funding systems for current operating revenues, there is a dearth of research on capital funding systems. This article presents an analysis of the school capital funding system in Kentucky since 1990, using the operating-revenue analysis concepts of horizontal equity,…

Schools face the dual challenge of tighter education budgets and demands to raise achievement levels. Can this be done? The author argues that it can and has been achieved. The successful districts in some cases have transformed their strategic approach by focusing on costs; developing a new, more powerful school vision; identifying and allocating…

This study estimates the costs of providing a high-quality PreK-3rd education approach in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Relying on an Evidence-Based approach to school finance adequacy, it identifies the staffing resources needed to offer high-quality integrated PreK-3rd programs and then estimates the costs of those resources. By…

This policy brief describes how the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has approached the objectives of educational equity and adequacy over the past decade and a half, and reveals how their current finance research has begun to explicitly link the level and use of resources with strategies that districts and schools can deploy to…

This paper examines past school finance reforms of the 1970's, current reforms in the 1980's, and future reforms in the 1990's. Fiscal inequities targeted in the reforms of the seventies resulted in major structural changes in the school finance systems of over 30 states. The reforms not only improved fiscal equity but helped increase…

Traditional school-finance systems need dramatic change to make them more supportive of the goals and strategies of standards. The shortcomings of current structures are reviewed, and suggestions are provided for changing finance structures, including a shift from fiscal equity toward educational adequacy. Elements to enhance a new system are…

The focus of this policy brief is on efforts to redesign state and district school finance systems to align them more closely with the standards-based education reform movement. Past efforts to offset fiscal disparities with state aid in low-property wealth districts have only been moderately successful. Part of the problem lies in the fact that…

School finance is a highly visible issue. Recent sweeping state supreme court decisions have overturned finance structures in New Jersey, Texas, and Kentucky. There are 16 additional states with active or planned cases making school finance litigation, fiscal inequalities, and school finance reform major issues in the state education policy…

Discusses new research directions for school finance that should accompany a national policy shift toward improving education quality. Traces the evolution of school finance, outlines school finance topics related to recently enacted state education reforms, and projects future education policy isues and related financial research problems.…

Presents findings of a 5-year study of U.S. educational finance. Analyzes spending patterns across 50 states and examines staffing patterns and expenditures across curriculum areas in California, Florida, and New York. Although this century has seen a major investment in public education, funding has been distributed unfairly and used…

The revisionist view that property taxes are progressive rather than regressive is contradicted by research that shows the property tax takes proportionately more from the low-income taxpayer than it does from the middle- or high-income taxpayer. (Author/MLF)

This paper presents strategies for designing and implementing new and more effective approaches to school-finance structures. The first section discusses state school-finance systems, their inadequacies, and how they have changed dramatically in several states. It explores how varieties of standard school-finance formulas may actually exacerbate…

Outlines the trends in educational funding patterns needed to enact educational reform. Local property taxes, state revenues, and federal aid continue to provide the bulk of financing. Includes two tables. (MD)

The current context of policy issues and limits of current state education data systems underscore the need to create new, detailed, and comprehensive school-level data systems. Such data could be used to illuminate policy issues relating to governance, resource utilization, accountability, equity, and adequacy. In this special issue, authors…

Several new school finance reform issues are emerging that require further analysis. The first issue is the impact of previous school finance reforms especially regarding their fiscal, programmatic, and governance effects. More analysis is also needed of the effects of the composition of the property tax base and the structure of state…