On March 25-26, 2010, a cadre of urban education leaders gathered in Baltimore, Maryland for the "Fair Student Funding Summit," a conference that brought together districts that use weighted student funding (WSF) as an approach for allocating dollars to schools. Convened by Education Resource Strategies (ERS) and hosted by Baltimore City…

Forty-six percent of Washington's state operating budget is devoted to K-12 education. This paper provides an overview of key features of Washington's school finance system. It examines sources and levels of revenues and expenditures for K-12 public education and outlines major principles of Washington's revenue distribution system. An examination…

This paper provides current information about the funding of Washington's K-12 school finance system. Schools in Washington State derive most of their revenues from state sources. In response to a 1977 court ruling, 'Seattle v. State of Washington', the state assumed responsibility for funding "basic education" for a "uniform system…

The course of school finance reform in Washington since the 1977 "Seattle School District v. State" decision is traced in this document. While the majority of nationwide court decisions have centered on the inequitable distribution of financial resources among school districts within 10 states, the Washington decision focused on the…

Since 1965, Washington has recognized that small schools need special financial consideration if their students are to receive educational opportunities comparable to those in larger districts. In 1977, after school districts brought suit against the state for failing fully to fund basic education, the state legislature passed the Basic Education…

This short paper is part of a collection of 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002. It discusses educational voucher programs. It states that proponents of voucher programs, having scored a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court with "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris" (2002), will…

Washington State faces the challenge of balancing a number of conflicting economic and political conditions that impact K-12 education either directly or indirectly. These include reduced vehicle license fees, an existing statewide spending limit, a state revenue surplus, proposals to provide property-tax relief, proposed voter initiatives to…

Money to operate Washington's public schools comes from state, local, and federal sources. For the 1995-96 school year, total combined revenue exceeded $5 billion. The largest share of Washington's operating budget is devoted to K-12 education. This paper portrays critical features of Washington's school finance system. It first examines current…

Many states are trying to balance interests in school between taxpayers' concerns and providing students with a good education. Washington is trying to overcome these problems and renew and enhance its public schools. Three court decisions in the late 1970s and early 1980s set strict constraints within which Washington's school funding system must…

Washington State assumes full responsibility for funding a basic education program for K-12 public schools. Full funding of basic education includes special education programs, transitional bilingual programs, remediation-assistance programs, and certain pupil transportation costs. This paper describes conditions in Washington State school finance…

A comprehensive investigation was conducted of the impact of the financial reductions that occurred during the 1979-81 and 1981-83 bienniums on the Washington state community college system. Data were obtained for fall quarters 1979 and 1982 to determine if there were significant differences between variables encompassing employee staffing levels,…

This paper describes current school-funding policy issues in Washington State. The first part examines how Initiative 601, an initiative aimed at curbing state taxes and spending, will create fiscal instability for school districts. Difficulties include an expected growth in school enrollment exceeding population growth, an expected growth of…

This paper discusses policy issues faced by two-year colleges in the state of Washington during the first year of implementation of performance funding. Four key policy questions were reviewed: (1) the reward versus entitlement paradigm shift, which forces educators to alter expectations about "entitlement" to higher education funding…

The highly centralized Washington State System of Community Colleges, as created by the Community College Act of 1967, is administered by a governor-appointed state board with one member from each of the seven congressional districts. Reporting to the state board on all revenues and expenditures made are 22 local boards of trustees. A commission…