Between the 1966-76 and 1976-77 school years, expenditures per pupil for the maintenance and operation of Georgia public schools rose 146 percent. Even after adjustments for inflation, this is a substantial increase. Faced with taxpayer resistance to increasing taxes, educational leaders can choose from three options. They can adopt an aggressive…

In Brigham et al. v. State of Vermont (1997), the Vermont Supreme Court struck down the previous state-funding system and directed the legislature to come up with a new system that would eliminate the inequities among the local school districts. An analysis of this decision and its consequences is offered here. The paper recaps the funding system…

The Tennessee School Finance Equity Study was begun in 1978 to review the equity and adequacy of Tennessee's Public School Finance Program. Changes in the structure of the Tennessee Foundation Program (TFP) did achieve greater equity in the amount of funds local districts obtained from the foundation program even though the residence of the…

A 1973 Illinois school finance reform program initiated a guaranteed tax yield system that can also be considered a district power equalization system. This paper evaluates this reform according to four criteria: permissable variance, fiscal neutrality, reward for effort, and aid to urban areas. Emphasis is given to a discussion of legal and…

In 1996, the Mississippi State Department of Education published information on accreditation, finances, student achievement, and other variables that could be utilized to assess each school district's success. After the report's publication, questions surfaced regarding disparities in the funding of the public school districts in the state. An…

This paper attempts both to provide a way of looking at school finance in order to make wiser decisions about it and to discuss some alternative ways to finance the public schools of New York State. The New York school finance system is examined in terms of equity, efficiency, and responsiveness, as are some of the characteristics of the…

The funding and operation of Michigan's K-12 public school system was substantially changed in March 1994, with voter approval of a constitutional amendment and legislative adoption of 24 implementing state statutes. The comprehensive school funding proposal substantially reduced local property taxes; increased, and in some cases decreased, the…

This document reports on a survey of 30 school districts (five percent of all New Jersey school districts) which contain over two-thirds of the State's total minority enrollment. Twenty-three of the 30 districts are classified as urban communities and over 98 percent of the minority students live in them. Property taxes are the primary source of…