Education finance policy in New Jersey has been shaped by over 30 years of school finance litigation. Through its decisions in "Robinson v. Cahill" (1973-1976) and "Abbott v. Burke" (1985-2005), the justices of New Jersey's supreme court have defined the state's constitutional guarantee of a "thorough and efficient"…

Introducing the fate of school finance reform as the topic of the next two issues of the Journal of Education Finance, the authors note the clash of values at the heart of the equity issue as described by the journal's contributors. They argue for legislative control as the way to resolve conflicts about school finance equity. (JW)

Explores several questions facing policymakers addressing adequacy and equity issues. Do traditional equity issues disappear if equitable outcomes are achieved? What should adequacy standards look like? How does one design an equity-based school finance system? Can we define the production functions that will yield desired outcomes? Is the…

Uses data from four cities (Chicago, Fort Worth, New York, and Rochester) to explore schools' budgetary and personnel discretion under school-based budgeting; how resource-allocation decisions are made; and factors influencing expenditure decisions. A school-based-budgeting process may increase stakeholder involvement and satisfaction without…

Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act provides local school districts with federal funds to meet the special needs of educationally deprived children in high poverty areas. Because federal regulations provide little guidance for allocating Chapter 1 resources within the districts, distribution formulas vary and so do the…

In June 1990, after 9 years of court battles, the state supreme court had found that New Jersey's school finance system was inequitable and had to be changed to better support children in urban schools. This book details the reasons behind the reform and its effects and tracks the impact of the reform from its dollar effects on fiscal equity in…

Describes how differences in wealth translate into differences in revenues and educational programs. Describes how poor school districts use new state aid that has come about from court decisions requiring new state funding systems, finding that poor school districts seem to act responsibly with these funds. (SR)

A recent study revealed deficiencies in the long-awaited "Abbott v. Burke" ruling, which benefited 28 inner-city districts and shortchanged poor rural and middle-wealth districts. By ignoring these groups of districts, New Jersey lawmakers have sown the seeds of taxpayer backlash, as evidenced by two recent lawsuits. (Contains 23…

Presents a history of New Jersey's Public School Education Act of 1975, including a discussion of the landmark decision Robinson v. Cahill (1970), which found the state's educational finance system unconstitutional. Measures of expenditure disparity and wealth neutrality are then used to assess the present New Jersey school finance system. (JW)