After being sued for inequity and inadequacy in school funding, many states have reformed their education aid policies. Using Connecticut as an example, this paper shows how to design a state education aid formula that can effectively address funding inequity and inadequacy while taking political feasibility into account. It first develops a…

The purpose of this article was to present the results of a study that analyzed Pennsylvania local school boards' taxing authority, pre- and post-enactment of Special Session Act 1, "The Taxpayer Relief Act," in 2006, in terms of its percent share of school districts' total budget in order to better understand the impact of the new…

This report, third in a series on education finance, examines U.S. education budgets recently passed by state legislatures and contrasts them with proposed gubernatorial budgets. The generally strong economy allowed state legislatures to increase total state FY 1998 education spending by over $2 billion (1.5 percent) from governors' own proposed…

This document presents the U.S. Department of Education's budget for 2002. This is the first budget under President George W. Bush, and it reflects the president's goals for six areas in education: close the achievement gap, empower parents with choices, expand flexibility and reduce bureaucracy, improve elementary and secondary education, bolster…

This report contains the New York State regents' proposal for improving state aid to elementary and secondary schools for 1979. The regents' program is designed to meet inflationary pressures on school districts, offer greater equalization, provide a modest amount of property tax relief, eliminate inequities in several aid areas, and reduce paper…

Employed various statistical techniques to measure fiscal equity in Virginia. The new state aid system for financing education was unable to mitigate large and increasing disparities in education revenues between more and less affluent localities and a strong and growing linkage between revenue and wealth. Includes 34 footnotes. (MLH)

The first section of this report focuses on school finance in Maryland and briefly overviews the relative importance of federal, state and local funding. The next section summarizes state education aid, focusing on policy goals guiding state aid, the brief history of state education aid, and the various approaches Maryland uses to distribute…

The property tax is the single most important revenue source for local governments and school districts in New York State. Its positive attributes are its stability, simplicity, efficiency, predictability, and its contribution to local government. Yet gross inequities are associated with assessment administration of property tax. An analysis of a…

This analysis is the second of a series of seven reports on the ways that the urban fiscal crisis has affected children. During the 1970s, as a result of general public disenchantment with government, 39 states (78 percent of the 50 states) appear to have enacted tax limitations that affected children's services. Of these states, 37 imposed…

This report analyzes the impact of California's 1972 Senate Bill 90 and 1973 Assembly Bill 1267 as they have affected public school finance in California. The portions of SB 90 and AB 1267 that pertain to operating school districts contain general property tax rollback and revenue limit features, as well as mechanisms designed to lessen the…

Differing methodologies and varied conclusions in research about equity trends in school finance make it impossible to assess national status in school finance reform by using existing studies. Evidence suggests, however, that although horizontal equity has not been achieved, the situation improved from 1940 to 1960 and worsened from 1960 to 1977.…

Uses a typical Lorenz-curve framework to measure inequality of resource allocation in South African education. Although improvements have been achieved over the past two decades, substantial inequalities remain. The current distribution of educational resources is much more unequal than that for developed countries but not as inequitable as that…

Part of a three-volume report on the effects of school finance reform, this volume examines the effects of reform on Michigan school districts' budgets from 1971 to 1976. Econometric models were used. Researchers found a very small "price" effect--an elasticity of -.02. The data provide no evidence that state matching grants stimulate…

This report measures the inequities in school taxes on New York State residential property that result from assessment nonuniformity. The index of nonuniformity is a measure of the average percentage difference in school tax bills paid by owners of like residential properties in the same school district but in separate assessing units. Using this…

This study related tax rate and per pupil revenue to residential assessed valuation, percent residential of total assessed valuation, and selected socioeconomic independent variables for school districts in Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, and Lake counties in Illinois. Findings suggest that for homeowners and the students of these counties in 1976,…