This document provides background information on educational finance in North Dakota. It examines the use of nonproperty factors in financing education, the quality of education, legal action in the state regarding education finance issues, and the effects of any 1993 North Dakota legislation on education finance. The paper first describes changes…

Public school funding in Florida differs from other states in a number of important ways. First, Florida has a highly equalized resource-distribution formula resulting in a high degree of interdistrict equity. Second, concerns for quality, while constant, have had to compete with the state's phenomenal growth. Third, the state exercises a much…

This report examines the current school finance system in Oregon and recommends changes to make the system more equitable and less subject to variations in local property wealth. After briefly describing the inequities of the present system, most of the report discusses the committee's legislative recommendations and their probable impact. The…

This report provides an overview of the State school aid distribution plan passed by the New Mexico legislature in 1974. The previous school finance plan, passed in 1969, and the problems school districts experienced under that plan are briefly described, followed by a discussion of the 1974 legislation. The new plan is a weighted-pupil formula…

In 1994 and 1995, most school-finance legislation at the state level dealt with state aid--36 out of 127 bills introduced in 1994 and 31 out of 212 bills introduced in 1995. This report presents 13 tables that summarize the content of state legislation and identify bills that addressed the formation of study committees, the use of lottery funds to…

After decades of media attention, study, and lawsuits, the solution to inequities in school funding remains elusive. This paper examines several strategies that states have used to try to close the funding disparities in per-pupil spending. It explains the two definitions of equity in the school-finance arena and identifies some important trends…

This paper describes current school-funding policy issues in Washington State. The first part examines how Initiative 601, an initiative aimed at curbing state taxes and spending, will create fiscal instability for school districts. Difficulties include an expected growth in school enrollment exceeding population growth, an expected growth of…

After being placed on the back burner during the 1980s, school finance is again a major issue. In the 1970s, reliance on property taxes created school district disparities because of unequal tax bases. Legislative reforms enacted between 1971 and 1985 had the following characteristics: school finance formulas were revamped; the state role in…

The allocation of education funds by State legislatures, the attitudes of legislators on educational issues, and the interaction of legislators with education lobbyists in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Utah, and Oregon were studied in an attempt to explain how educational resources are allocated in the 50 States and how legislators approach the…

The Oregon educational system confronts a set of legislative challenges similar to, yet different from, the rest of the nation. Like the rest of the nation, distrust of government runs high, politicians are wary of raising or restructuring taxes, the economy is expanding, and the November 1994 state election shook up the political leadership of…

This paper describes the development of school finance reform in Oregon from 1968 through legislative enactments in 1973 and proposals for the voters in 1974. The first section describes the 1973 school finance reform proposal, rejected by voters, as it was originally submitted (whereby the State would have assumed 95 percent of the operating…

This publication provides information on the sources and amounts of funds available for prekindergarten through postsecondary education in Illinois common schools for 1996-97. The guidebook contains a summary of fiscal-year 1997 appropriations to the Illinois State Board of Education, as well as appropriations for educationally related purposes…

This paper evaluates the equity dimensions of a grant-in-aid system based on the Resource Cost Model (RCM), as proposed by the Illinois State Board of Education. The first section is an independent evaluation of the conceptual and legal aspects of the RCM, focusing on both the weaknesses and the strengths of the model. In the second section, an…