State assumption of all responsibility for financing education would enhance equalization of educational opportunity, fix accountability for educational finance with the governor and the State legislature, accelerate measurement of student achievement, eliminate burdensome property taxes, and undercut the fiscal logic that now supports exclusionary zoning practices in many suburban jurisdictions. The role of the Federal Government should be to use its resources to reduce fiscal disparities among States and to encourage States to build compensatory aid factors into their financing plans. In applying State financing for education, the power to tax must be divorced from the power to spend. (Author/JF)