Public school districts sustained by property taxes inhibit equal distribution of education resources, overburden low wage earners, and foster inefficient labor practices. A move to the state level appears inevitable. (Editor)

Today local control over education seems to face the most serious challenge in its history. The movement to reform school finance raises the specter of the State assuming its formal consitutional powers and removing autonomy from the communities. Hence, it is argued, as the State takes over control of taxation and expenditures it will want to…

This paper analyzes Texas Senate Bill 351 that reforms public school funding. The bill provides for additional state funding and significant increases in local property taxes. The bill creates county education taxing units to neutralize the enormous property wealth differences found among the state's 1,056 school districts. It also provides a…

The goal of the doctoral dissertation summarized here was to find an equitable school finance plan that applied the same tax rate in all districts and resulted in the smallest variance in the expenditure per weighted pupil unit (WPU) between districts in Arizona for the 1971-72 school year. Six finance plans were developed for analysis and were…

Recent court decisions requiring changes in State educational finance systems have not invalidated the use of local property taxes as a revenue source for education, nor have they dictated that the same amount of dollars must be spent on every pupil. In short, these decisions have left with the State legislatures the responsibility to fashion new…

This article discusses several relatively new issues involved in current debates over education finance policies, notes the research related to them, and summarizes the areas for which additional research is needed. The areas discussed are the impacts of school finance reform, school district financial behavior, the impact of school finance reform…

Addition of fiscal response factors to the traditional simulation model of school finance demonstrates that the traditional model underestimates both the costs and impacts of state aid programs at the district level. The study reviews research on fiscal response--defined as school districts' taxing and spending behavior after receipt of state…

This publication will provide the general public and the educational community with a summary of interpretations, policies, and procedures established by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for the administration of the basic instructional subsidy. Pennsylvania schools are funded by a complicated state and local financial partnership spelled…

This paper (1) provides background on types of State aid to education and describes how they work, (2) discusses the existing expenditure structure in Illinois, (3) describes and analyzes the fixed foundation (Strayer-Haig), variable foundation, percentage equalization, and resource equalizer formulae used for equalization aid in the United…

Two constitutional issues continued to dominate litigation related to school finance during 1977. Questions concerning the spending of public funds for the benefit of students attending private schools (for example, Wolman v. Walter) continued to arise in both state and federal courts. Also, cases involving the constitutionality of state school…

Intended to answer questions regarding public schools in Washington, this handbook provides an overview of the organization and financing of the state's public school system, grades K-12. Included are brief descriptions of the Basic Education Act, the basic education allocation formula, how state and local funds are included in this formula, and…

A sample of Michigan cities is the basis for an evaluation of the economic benefits of collective bargaining to teachers and the economic impact of bargaining upon the school districts that employ and negotiate with them. The study's conclusions include: (1) Bargaining produced pay increases averaging 10 to 20 percent higher than teachers would…

1974 is a watershed for New Jersey public schools, a time when the State is under court order to reform its discriminatory and ineffective method of raising and distributing educational revenues. The existing approach to financing education in the state of New Jersey assigns higher educational resources to pupils in richer school districts, yet…

Problems associated with state support for community colleges are discussed with particular emphasis on situations where local college districts are responsible for providing a portion of total institutional revenue. Three of these problems, relating to the equity and efficiency of how state aid is distributed, are: (1) the integration of direct…

This report contains the findings and recommendations of a Missouri public school finance study conducted by the citizens of Missouri. It begins with an overview of the study, giving its organization, the procedures used, and a summary of recommendations. The report then presents separate sections corresponding to each of the following four major…