In 1972, school finance emerged as a major area of litigation. The most important of the cases dealt with support for private schools and State allocation formulas for local school districts. In Wolman vs Essex, the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision that State-funded tuition grants to parents of children attending private schools were unconstitutional, and, in San Antonio Independent School District vs Rodriguez, the Court upheld the use of the local ad valorem property tax as a major component in the financing of public education. The cases in this chapter, one of seven in the 1973 Yearbook of School Law, reflect those court opinions that are of general interest; no attempt has been made to analyze every decision in the area of school finance. (Author/JF)