The New York State Board of Regents' 2004-05 State Aid Proposal put forward the idea of instituting Foundation Aid as a response to concerns about the sufficiency of state education funding then being provided to local school districts. In 2007, prompted by legal action, a call for reform by the Regents, and the election of a new governor with a…

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 passage of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) in 1990 had a dramatic impact on the funding of primary and secondary education in the state. The amount of money spent on education increased significantly with the passage of KERA with districts in rural areas of the state experiencing the largest growth in spending (Hoyt, 1999). This has…

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…

State and local governments are primary funders of education and children's services, directly funding some programs and matching funding from federal or other sources for other programs. Spending on programs for children varies widely. This report brings together data from various sources that, taken together, show spending on children's programs…

A survey was conducted of Illinois community college presidents and business managers to determine current institutional thinking on the Illinois funding formula. Study findings, based on responses from 36 out of the 39 colleges in the state included the following: (1) 64% of the respondents favored the concept of averaging credit hours and unit…

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…

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…

The five States represented include Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, and California. For each State the data are presented in terms of the changes occurring in State aid/pupil, the changes in local revenues/pupil, and the changes in local school property tax rates. A final column lists the change in total taxable property for schools, 1972-73…

This paper examines changes in California's school finance system over the past 35 years. It focuses specifically on the growth of categorical program funding. The study assesses the nature and magnitude of changes, the causes of those changes, the significance of those changes for the capacity of schools to provide high quality educational…

Prepared in response to a directive from the California Legislature, this report presents the results of a differential funding study for the California community college system. Part one provides a summary of the study and its findings, discusses elements of a proposed plan for the implementation of a differential funding system, and indicates…

Current expense tax rates, local current expense revenues, total current expenses from all revenue sources, and expenditures for salaries were analyzed in 16 school districts to review the effects of a state statute that significantly modified the formula of state equalization fund allocation. Twenty-four tables of financial information are used…

Updated were statistics of an earlier study done by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) in 1980, entitled "The Missouri School Finance Study." The recent results differed from the earlier study's, illustrating the extent to which revenues per pupil depended on local property wealth and income. The results of the first study…