Argues that tax-target plans address the taxpayers' desire to have monies spent as they would wish so that school services somewhat reflect their own preferences and not solely those of others. (Author/MLF)

To improve the equity of Vermont's school finance system, the state legislature passed Act 60. This new funding mechanism is described, with a focus on the equity issues raised by the state supreme court. A court's decision struck down substantial dependence on local property taxes to provide revenue for local school districts. The report reviews…

States have made major strides in devising more equitable school finance plans. Constructive debates still occur, however, over the choice of basic funding plans, the balancing of taxes and expenditures in new finance plans, and the need and feasability of coordinating financial and educational reform movements. The resolution of these debates at…

This paper discusses an approach to solving the school financing problem that treats separately the twin concerns of taxational and educational equity. Part 1 reviews the decision of the California supreme court in Serrano 1 as it relates to these concerns and the manner in which the state district court on remand attempted to utilize the concept…

This document evaluates the tax burden changes that occur as selected local service functions are shifted to State government. The primary emphasis is on the analysis of alternative systems on the residents of the two central cities of the standard metropolitan statistical area, Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. (NTIS)

This study examines the consequences of alternative financing arrangements for secondary and elementary education. There is an analysis of the characteristics of the present system of State aid. The study evaluates the incidence of major State and local taxes and then determines the distributional consequences of shifting from local to State…

The Government Accounting Standards Board's current Measurement Focus and Basis of Accounting Project has identified alternatives in financial resources accounting that will reduce the opportunity for political, budgetary, or other pressures to allow school districts to shift the burden of providing current-year's services to future-year's…

This paper reports on the protracted history of the Arkansas school-finance case, the longest-running school-finance lawsuit in the United States. It details in chronological sequence the lawsuit filed in 1992 by the Lakeview School District, a very small all African-American school district alleging that the state school-finance plan was…

Two financing plans are proposed to address needs for an allowance for poor households to fund child-care: financing from redirected existing funds; and a program of voluntary parental leave to ensure the adequacy of infant care, financed through a payroll tax increase. These proposals would help parents balance work and family obligations. (SLD)

The decade from 1987 to 1997 saw two unsuccessful attempts to reform Illinois's school finance system from a constitutional perspective. In 1997, prospective reforms will probably be limited by partisanship, revenues and anti-tax sentiment, regional antipathies, fragmentation, and pressures for property tax relief. (MLH)

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…

The first of a series on school finance and the role of the state/local community, this document examines recent trends and developments in property taxation. The setting for property taxation and the state and local share of tax revenues for financing education are discussed. Two charts illustrate: (1) school district property tax collections…

1976 saw a number of major fiscal changes occurring in New Jersey, all of which had an impact on educational funding. These include the imposition of a state income tax, a property tax rebate program, and a new system of funding public education that significantly increases the state's share of total education support. Based on a measure of the…

Since the publication of the seventh edition of this textbook in 1999, there have been many new developments in the education finance arena. Those changes are discussed in this eighth edition. Additional new material includes Internet resources, new exercises for further "laboratory" work, updated figures and tables, and fresh information on court…

Reviews the school finance reforms in Ohio since 1975 and analyzes the state aid distribution, comparative distribution of state and local revenue, and equalization of property tax revenues. Discusses the options available to the Ohio legislature to approach distribution equity for funds currently in the system. (JW)