Top-down accountability policies have arguably had very limited impact over the past 20 years. Education stakeholders are now contemplating new forms of bottom-up accountability. In 2013, policymakers in California enacted a community-based approach that creates the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) process for school finance to increase…

Argues that local school districts in California have been rendered essentially obsolete by state funding and control due to the combined effects of the "Serrano" decision (requiring statewide school expenditure equalization) and Proposition 13. One board president and two superintendents take issue with this judgment. (TE)

This research effort examines inequalities in educational input resources among school systems in Texas and California in light of the Rodriguez and Serrano court cases. Low-income families in both states were found to be in districts of low per-pupil-Expenditures and inferior educational services primarily because they are located in districts…

In response to the funding crisis generated in part by the "Serrano vs. Priest" decision and by Proposition 13, parents and volunteers in over 100 California school districts have formed tax-exempt nonprofit corporations to improve the quality of education by raising supplementary funds, usually through donations from parents of children…