This handbook was prepared in response to a 1978 New York State Supreme Court decision which ruled that the funding of education in New York violated the equal protection clause and the education clause of the State Constitution. The Court instructed the State Legislature to enact a more equitable way to finance public education. Written for the…

This paper is an indepth survey of American educational finance from its origins to the present and with projections for the future. It discusses the influence of and impact on school finance of some of the following: demographic patterns, changes in the American economy, Sputnik and civil rights events, federal intervention, the courts, local…

Uneven access to taxable real property wealth currently produces wide disparities in per pupil expenditures among New York state school districts. The state's operating aid formula does not compensate for the inequities in low wealth districts having an operating expense level of more than $1,500 per pupil. In the last decade several proposals…

Examines the efficacy of nonresidential expanded tax base (ETB) approaches to school finance. A simulation estimated effects of statewide and regional nonresidential ETB approaches on measures of student equity for New York school districts. ETB approaches would improve student equity at no additional cost to the state and need not adversely…

This document contains eight articles that offer a nonpartisan evaluation of the pros and cons associated with tax reforms. They were written by members of the Technical Study Group, which was established by the New York State Department of Education in 1994 to examine the generation of revenue for public education. The work of the study group…

This book is designed to provide public officials, leaders of organizations concerned with school funding issues, and citizens active in educational affairs with information about the political, economic, and equity issues that underlie the school finance reform debate in New York State. It discusses present inequities and potential approaches to…

In discharging its constitutional responsibility for maintaining and supporting free public schools, the state financially aids local school districts to insure that lack of wealth is not an obstacle to providing at least a mimimum educational program. State aid to education in New York State is dependent on two factors: the full value of real…

The Levittown v Nyquist court case is bound to have serious repercussions for New York State. In dispute is the legality of the State's system for financing elementary and secondary education. The case was initiated in 1974 by Levittown and 24 other suburban and rural school districts who claimed to be unable to generate an adequate level of local…