Describes New York State's experience with school district tax limits in urban districts serving less than 125,000. Originally designed to protect taxpayers, these tax limits have spawned a costly state aid system that raises serious equity issues. Recent legislation removed tax limits and made state aid more equitable. (32 references) (MLH)

As this report's introduction shows, the New York State commitment to elementary and secondary education has increased state assistance by $3.2 billion (65 percent), from $4.88 billion in 1983-84 to $8.09 billion in 1988-89. School districts also increased local tax revenues almost $2.5 billion, so that total local expenditures increased about…

This handbook was prepared in response to a 1978 New York State Supreme Court decision which ruled that the funding of education in New York violated the equal protection clause and the education clause of the State Constitution. The Court instructed the State Legislature to enact a more equitable way to finance public education. Written for the…

This paper is an indepth survey of American educational finance from its origins to the present and with projections for the future. It discusses the influence of and impact on school finance of some of the following: demographic patterns, changes in the American economy, Sputnik and civil rights events, federal intervention, the courts, local…

The present research addresses three critical aspects of the municipal overburden question. Geographical differences in costs of providing public services are reflected by an index of input prices. The essential nature of noneducation services is measured by need-related characteristics of the school districts. Finally, the link between these…

Uneven access to taxable real property wealth currently produces wide disparities in per pupil expenditures among New York state school districts. The state's operating aid formula does not compensate for the inequities in low wealth districts having an operating expense level of more than $1,500 per pupil. In the last decade several proposals…

Examines the efficacy of nonresidential expanded tax base (ETB) approaches to school finance. A simulation estimated effects of statewide and regional nonresidential ETB approaches on measures of student equity for New York school districts. ETB approaches would improve student equity at no additional cost to the state and need not adversely…

New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers share many qualities of cities in the Northeast including blighted neighborhoods, deserted factories, heavy municipal debt, shrinking constitutional taxing and borrowing limits, reductions in services, an aging housing market, substantial unemployment, and financially dependent school…

This book is designed to provide public officials, leaders of organizations concerned with school funding issues, and citizens active in educational affairs with information about the political, economic, and equity issues that underlie the school finance reform debate in New York State. It discusses present inequities and potential approaches to…

In discharging its constitutional responsibility for maintaining and supporting free public schools, the state financially aids local school districts to insure that lack of wealth is not an obstacle to providing at least a mimimum educational program. State aid to education in New York State is dependent on two factors: the full value of real…

The Levittown v Nyquist court case is bound to have serious repercussions for New York State. In dispute is the legality of the State's system for financing elementary and secondary education. The case was initiated in 1974 by Levittown and 24 other suburban and rural school districts who claimed to be unable to generate an adequate level of local…

Contents of these hearings include: a statement prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, submitted by the National Committee for Support of the Public Schools; "Future Direction for School Financing, a Response to Demands for Fiscal Equity in American Education," a monograph prepared by the National…

Evaluates estimates of full-value-equalization rates, using a study of 20 New York cities and their school districts to (1) show that these estimates contain significant errors, (2) discuss how these errors affect intergovernmental relations, and (3) analyze how they affect equity in financing local schools. (MCG)

THE EFFECTS OF A 1962 NEW YORK STATE AID TO EDUCATION ACT WERE INVESTIGATED IN RELATION TO AN OLD FOUNDATION PROGRAM. THIS STATE AID TO EDUCATION ACT WAS BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF SHARED COST. BOTH NEW AND OLD PROGRAMS WERE APPRAISED WITH RESPECT TO THE OBJECTIVES OF SCHOOL FISCAL POLICY--EQUITY OF SUPPORT (EQUAL TREATMENT OF EQUALS), EQUALIZATION…

Eight proposals for the use of tax-levy funds in the support of postsecondary education are examined. Tax-levy funds are the major source of revenue for the institutions of the State University of New York and the City University of New York. The eight proposals are as follows: Tuition Offset Grants Plan, Student Access Grants Plan, Cost of…