Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee a right to education? The Supreme Court declared that it does not in "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez," a 1973 case alleging that disparities in spending levels among Texas school districts violated students' constitutional rights. This issue's forum contains two essays. The first…

This article discusses concerns about how Neil M. Gorsuch, a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, might influence decisions regarding cases involving the appropriate scope of services guaranteed by federal special-education law, government aid to religious institutions providing educational services, and how intellectual property law applies to sports…

The University of Arkansas Center for Education Reform's report on charter school funding inequities proclaims large and growing inequities between school district and charter school revenues, even after accounting for differences in student needs. But the report displays complete lack of understanding of intergovernmental fiscal relationships,…

In the United States, corporate school reform or neoliberal educational restructuring has overtaken educational policy, practice, curriculum, and nearly all aspects of educational reform. Although this movement began on the political right, the corporate school model has been heralded across the political spectrum and is aggressively embraced now…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) preserves the most positive legacy of the No Child Left Behind era--more accurate and transparent data about the performance of all students--and helps states take their efforts to use data in support of student learning to the next level. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) appreciates the opportunity to provide…

A new report by researchers at the University of Arkansas concludes that charter schools in New York City are not fairly funded, in comparison to district schools. The report asserts that this inequity is especially big for charter schools that are not co-located in public schools. The report also describes expenditure patterns across schools,…

In 2008, Denise Bradley and colleagues published their "Review of Australian Higher Education." A key point of the Bradley Review was to highlight the long-standing under-representation of working-class people at Australia's universities. Working-class people represent 25% of Australia's general population; however, they represent only…

Beginning in the early 1970s, plaintiffs initiated a veritable tidal wave of litigation over financing public education in states with unequal funding for students in poor school systems. In the only case on school finance to reach the United States Supreme Court, "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" (1973), the…

In these austere times it is difficult not to feel pessimistic about the future. The economic news seems universally bad, the Euro crisis seems interminable, the housing market is stagnant, there are more than one million young people out of work and public spending is set to fall even further over the next few years. Participation in learning has…

Equity issues in public school finance have been discussed in terms of three waves. The first wave was a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court to provide equal education to all students as a fundamental right. After a ruling against the plaintiffs in "San Antonio v Rodriguez" (1973), the fight shifted to a second wave in the state courts.…

This article presents the authors' response to a response to their research on Illinois in which the authors analyze the equity, adequacy, and legal issues related to school finance. The Responders' quarrel with that portion of the authors' research that addresses equity and create a "de novo" analysis, by treating unequals equally--an…

In 1994, Michigan voters approved a ballot initiative that transferred the power in Michigan's education system from local communities to the state. Proposal A succeeded in slowing the growth of local property taxes and narrowing the gap between the richest and poorest districts in Michigan. However, due to a decade of sluggish economic growth,…

While Merrifield is correct in his basic argument that so-called "market reforms" in el/sec schooling are far from being pure market, he is incorrect to suggest that purer market projects are needed together with simulations of pure market reforms. There are two fundamental problems in that thesis. First, it is not clear that school choice in…

This article discusses issues of justice concerning school finance with a focus on the development of a conception of equality of educational opportunity. Emphasis is put on discussing the views of the other contributors in this symposium. The main conclusions of the discussion are that (1) equity and adequacy are not inconsistent views because…

In this article I argue that the distinction between an adequate education and an equal education has been overdrawn. In my view, a certain type of equality--civic equality--is internal to the idea of educational adequacy. An education system that completely separates the children of the poor and minorities from those of the wealthy and middle…