"Making the Grade 2021" analyzes the condition of public school funding in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Using the most recently available data from the 2018-19 school year, the report ranks and grades each state on three measures to answer the key question: How fair is school funding in your state? The three fairness…

"Making the Grade" provides an annual overview of the condition of school finance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data in this edition gives a picture of states' investment in their public school systems in the 2019-20 school year, the historic moment when public education, and society at large, experienced the massive…

This report evaluates the condition of public school funding in the states preceding the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. It draws upon data from 2018, the most recent year available. This analysis demonstrates the alarming condition of school funding in most states, leaving school districts, especially those segregated by poverty,…

"Making the Grade analyzes the condition of public school funding in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The current report presents a picture of school funding in 2020-2021, the first full school year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the most recent data available. The report ranks and grades each state on three measures to answer the…

This report provides key insights into the difficult working conditions endured by teachers in Arizona and across the nation. Arizona provides just $8,569 in per pupil funding, the lowest among all states. In fact, Arizona provides $5,477 "less" per pupil than the national average. Arizona also invests only 2.5% of its state wealth, as…

This guide aims to help parents understand the flexibility provided to States and school districts in the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), which amended the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act," a landmark Federal education law. Parents are the most important advocates for their children. Because States and school…

In December 2002, the Department of Education launched the Office of Innovation and Improvement. That office was charged with promoting promising innovations in education and expanding parental options and information. Even in those early days of the "No Child Left Behind Act" the Department knew that the law had the potential to set in…

Reviews and synthesizes court rulings that have expressly discussed the factor of economic cost in considerations of appropriateness of special-education programing. Advises educators to expend their resources in providing appropriate individual special-education programs rather than litigating the costs of those programs. (197 references) (MLF)

An average of 33.5 percent of school district expenditures is spent on classroom teachers' compensation in Wisconsin elementary schools. The range varies from a low of 21.4 percent to a high of 45.9 percent. Financial data were analyzed from the survey responses of 110 of Wisconsin's 431 districts. The reasons for the average proportion spent on…

After summarizing the philosophy behind the financing of public schools, this document reviews the division of legal responsibility for education between the state and federal governments; outlines the state's responsibility for providing an equal educational opportunity for its residents; and summarizes the use of federal revenues, state…