Discusses the effect of recent court decisions on the role of the state in school support. (JF)

Discusses valid systems of educational finance under court doctrine set forth in the California case, Serrano vs Priest. (JF)

Describes a lawsuit filed in January 1982 by New Hampshire students, parents, and school districts charging that the state's elementary and secondary education system's heavy reliance on local property taxes violates the state constitution by creating substantial inequities in the funds available per pupil in each district. (Author/RW)

Presents a model for sharing resources and services between small schools; the model is currently being utilized in four small school districts in the midwestern United States. (Author/WD)

A Pennsylvania school district was faced with increased costs and a decline in revenue from construction and real estate taxes. Using a computer graphing program that produced four-color graphs and charts that were then converted to 35 millimeter slides, the budget story was presented at town meetings, and the school board approved a 16 percent…

Although Superintendent Frank Petruzielo arrived with briefcase full of plans to change Houston (Texas) school district, he spent his first year reworking his ideas in consultation with district teachers and administrators. He ignored school budget brokering that had occurred between previous school boards and business establishment, won 32%…

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)

This document contains eight articles that offer a nonpartisan evaluation of the pros and cons associated with tax reforms. They were written by members of the Technical Study Group, which was established by the New York State Department of Education in 1994 to examine the generation of revenue for public education. The work of the study group…

The third annual survey of the Illinois Rural Life Panel included questions on school taxes, improvements to strengthen local schools, satellite technology, extracurricular activities, and career opportunities after high school. Results from a sample of approximately 2,000 residents in the 76 Illinois nonmetropolitan counties included: (1) 54…

In Brigham et al. v. State of Vermont (1997), the Vermont Supreme Court struck down the previous state-funding system and directed the legislature to come up with a new system that would eliminate the inequities among the local school districts. An analysis of this decision and its consequences is offered here. The paper recaps the funding system…

In states that depend on property taxes for school revenues, fair administration of the property tax is essential to ensure equitable state aid to all districts. Questions relevant to implementing a strategy for enhancing public support of the property tax as a source of local school revenue are answered in this report. The questions deal with the…

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…