Most of New Jersey's charter schools are located in the state's poorer, urban school districts, or "Abbott" districts, and exclusively serve students from those communities. A number of other schools are located outside of the Abbott districts but enroll students from these districts. Specifically, of the 50 charter schools operating in…

Describes some of the major trends and developments in Canadian school finance and discusses some of the key school finance issues presently facing provincial governments. (Author/JG)

New Jersey's legislature, as the result of a decision by the State Supreme Court in Robinson vs Cahill, is now under order to implement the century-old provision in the State's constitution for "a thorough and efficient system of free public schools." In an effort to contribute to the resolution of the problems arising from this order, a…

According to the weighted pupil philosophy, the essence of equal educational opportunity is not in providing equal amounts of funds for the education of each child, but in providing the varying amounts of funds needed to insure a financial basis for giving each child an equal opportunity to obtain an education which meets his needs. This paper…

Uses a foundation-equalizing model to develop a number of indicators measuring the extent to which states utilize the full range of equalization tools at its disposal. Illustrates the utility of these indicators through an evaluation of the school finance reform instituted by Rhode Island between 1992 and 1996. (Contains 25 references.)…

Florida's new school finance formula is characterized by a three mills power equalization scheme on top of a Strayer-Haig foundation plan. Finance legislation is predicated on the intent to equalize educational opportunity while increasing the authority and responsibility of districts for deciding matters of instructional organization and method.…

Although New York State's provisions for funding public education are among the best in the nation, improvements are needed in the state aid program. In this study, school district data on expenditures and wealth were analyzed and evaluated. Two direct causes of the substantial inequalities among school district services in New York are the…

This description of the Tennessee equalization plan consists of (1) a description of Tennessee's current public school finance program; (2) recommendations for change in the existing program; (3) a description of the conformance of the recommended changes to the equity guidelines developed by the United States Commissioner of Education pursuant to…

Colorado has been experiencing the efforts by local property tax groups to reduce the dependence for educational revenue by moving away from local property taxes to wider based taxation plans. Paralleling these efforts have been attempts by various groups, through the courts, to change the method of financing education to provide more equality of…

On June 26, 1973, the system for financing elementary and secondary education in Florida was radically altered when the Florida legislature passed the Florida Education Finance Program Act of 1973. Significant features of this act include (1) substantially increased fiscal equalization; (2) a systematic plan and substantial State commitment to…

In the 24 states providing special funding for small, rural, isolated schools, five factors are used to determine eligibility (pupil enrollment, number of teachers, population sparcity, isolation, local effort) and three means are used to direct funds (weighting for basic support, minimal support levels, size adjustment). (LC)

State equalization programs for school funding have been structured around variously weighted combinations of district wealth, tax effort and student need. For rural and small school districts, these programs have not always provided adequate financing. Nine rural school finance alternatives are suggested. (MH)

Published prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the case, this report puts into perspective the questions and problems before the State of Texas in resolving the issue raised by Rodriguez vs San Antonio. The document reviews the key elements of the decision in the Rodriguez case and considers alternative approaches that comply with the…

Available from: C. Elton Hinshaw, Secretary, 1313 21st Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37212. (JG)

Part of a three-volume report on the effects of school finance reform, this volume examines the effects of reform on Michigan school districts' budgets from 1971 to 1976. Econometric models were used. Researchers found a very small "price" effect--an elasticity of -.02. The data provide no evidence that state matching grants stimulate…