Act 34, the School Finance Act of 1983, was legislated in Arkansas to provide financial equity for all school districts. The comparison of school equity before and after the passage of the school finance law on 14 different measures is the purpose of this paper. Equity is measured for two different years: 1982-1983, the last year before passage of…

In 1994 Arkansas's school-finance system was declared unconstitutional. A compromise plan was drawn up during the following year to appease both the state legislature and the governor. This paper discusses the confusing and contradictory aspects of three pieces of the state's school-finance legislation: Act 916, Act 917, and the Biennial…

In 1995, Arkansas enacted two new bills that changed the way in which schools were financed. Act 916 required all school districts to levy a 25-mill tax based on an assessment ratio of 20 percent of use value on all property for maintenance and operation. The act also revised biennial appropriations for the State Department of Education,…

Arkansas' new finance law, Act 917, is difficult to understand because it has not been logically organized. This paper explains in detail the following provisions of the law: average daily membership (ADM) computation; local share; minimum and maximum millage; state support (including how priorities are set and the forms of state aid not covered,…

The Arkansas school finance equity suit titled "Lakeview vs. Tucker" was heard in 1994, and the state funding formula was declared unconstitutional. With much difficulty, a new law was passed to combine a number of previously categorical funds into the instructional budget. However, the constitutionality of the new law remains in…