Analyzes data on the economic prospects of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin--including demographic and economic trends, trends in taxation systems, school revenue and expenditure trends, and future revenue prospects--and offers prognoses for individual states. Generally, short-range revenue prospects are bleak, and long-range…

This study examined the relationship between operating tax rates and selected socioeconomic variables for Illinois school districts. Districts were separately ranked by operating tax rates and then divided into four equal quartiles--low tax effort, low medium tax effort, high medium tax effort, and high tax effort. Discriminant analysis was used…

The decade from 1987 to 1997 saw two unsuccessful attempts to reform Illinois's school finance system from a constitutional perspective. In 1997, prospective reforms will probably be limited by partisanship, revenues and anti-tax sentiment, regional antipathies, fragmentation, and pressures for property tax relief. (MLH)

Illinois' education finance plan is described in the first of this report's two chapters, and the second chapter considers the finance plan's equity. Chapter 1 covers the state's Resource Equalizer Aid Program and the tax revenue it guarantees districts; the calculation of maximum tax guarantees and local shares; the apportionment of state aid;…

Uses ordinary least-squares multivariate regression analysis to determine if jurisdictional types vary in their willingness to increase taxation for schools, employing 892 education fund referenda conducted in Illinois from 1981 to 1989. Outcomes do differ by jurisdiction type. The strongest predictor is willingness to pay for higher taxes. (29…

A 1973 Illinois school finance reform program initiated a guaranteed tax yield system that can also be considered a district power equalization system. This paper evaluates this reform according to four criteria: permissable variance, fiscal neutrality, reward for effort, and aid to urban areas. Emphasis is given to a discussion of legal and…

This document consists of a series of papers by different authors on the subject of school finance and equal educational opportunity. The papers discuss equalizing educational opportunity by means of a resource equalizer or guaranteed valuation grants-in-aid; the impact of changing school finance on metropolitan areas; and three types of…

School districts in Illinois are supported by revenues received primarily from local property taxes. Since the amount of local funds generated to support schools are affected by differences in property wealth, and property wealth is inequitably distributed, the funds available to provide an education to each student are also inequitably…

This report concentrates on the equity problem in Illinois public school finance. Central to this report is the thesis that there are three basic strategies for attacking the equity problem: make adjustments in the existing "foundation level" grant-in-aid system, abandon the "foundation" idea for a grant-in-aid system, and…

This report provides an analysis of current inequities in school finance in Illinois, the historical roots of those inequities, and an analysis of alternative options for funding primary and secondary education. An introduction briefly describes the basis for the constitutional challenge to the current funding system. The next section describes…

An essential prerequisite to reform of present methods of financing elementary and secondary schools and the development of an equitable, adequate, and workable system of school finance is a precise understanding of how the existing system works and its impact on different school districts and population groups. This report documents the existing…