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…

Three conference papers on school finance reform in Tennessee are presented in this document, with a focus on the disparities between rural and urban public school funding. The first paper examines the nature and size of contributions of various funding sources to the per-pupil revenue in local school districts, analyzes specific problems of the…

New Jersey's school funding reform initiative, the Quality Education Act of 1990 and its 1991 amendments, are described in this booklet. The amendments attempt to equalize the tax burden of all districts, provide property relief, and impose stricter spending limitations. In the new foundation funding system, the state provides aid based on a…

This report documents the factors involved in the consideration of two bills by the Minnesota legislature in 1977. The first bill, designed to increase the level of state foundation aid to education, was affected by public concern over inflation and property tax rates and by the impact of enrollment decline. Lobbying efforts by organizations of…

The format of this monograph follows essentially the arrangement of the day-long conference on Serrano vs. Priest: a major paper presentation, followed by a panel of three respondents, and subsequent general discussion involving the audience and conference participants. The editors have attempted to provide both the formal and the extemporaneous…

This document compiles several studies on educational finance, including "Federal Aid to Education: Who Benefits?""The Financial Aspects of Equality of Educational Opportunity," and "Legislator's Guide for School Finance." Also included are two briefs filed in the San Antonio vs Rodriguez case and a listing of current…

This publication examines 16 of the 18 basic educational issues identified in an earlier publication entitled, "Basic Issues in Texas Public School Finance: An Analysis of the Plans." Five major school finance bills pending before the Texas Legislature in April 1975 are discussed in relationship to each of the 16 issues, with cost…

Per-pupil property valuation extremes among Colorado school districts are as varied as the landscape. A foundation plan levels funding disparities for school operations, but financing of major capital outlay projects still depends on local property taxation. Funds are needed to finance classroom technologies and Internet connections. (MLH)

This document gathers together the Alaska state statutes dealing specifically with education and those affecting education although not limited solely to education. Both elementary and secondary education and postsecondary education are dealt with. The topics covered include the administration of the schools; the rights and responsibilities of…

This paper traces the development of school reform pressures in Kansas from the implementation of the foundation program in 1965 to the passage of substitute Senate Bill 92 during the 1973 legislative session. Bill 92 is designed to produce equalization of school district expenditures and tax levies by a formula based on the concept of funding the…

This summary provides an overview of developments in school finance litigation since the United States Supreme Court's historic and lamentable 1973 ruling in "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" that wealth-based discrimination in educational expenditures does not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to…

The Serrano case controversy raises the fundamental question: Do differences in school district per pupil expenditures represent cost differences incurred in providing essentially equivalent programs, or do they represent substantial differences in educational offerings? Although the answer is debatable, the California legislature increased…

In this landmark educational finance opinion (presented here in full) the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Texas case was not a proper case in which to examine a State's laws under standards of strict judicial scrutiny. That test, according to the Court, is reserved for cases involving laws that operate to the disadvantage of suspect classes or…

A survey was conducted of at least two educational agencies in each state and territory of the United States in order to determine state policies on concurrent enrollment. Six states did not respond; 17 indicated that there was no statewide policy and that such matters were determined on a local level by boards of trustees or individual…

Wide scale reform in Texas education financing was enacted in 1984 under the Equal Education Opportunity Act (Texas House Bill 72). This paper examines the reform through an analysis of the newly enacted weighted pupil Foundation School Program (FSP) during the 1985-86 school year. Two modes of inquiry were used: correlational analysis between…