Throughout the history of publicly-funded voucher programs--enacted and proposed--the impact on taxpayers has been a recurring issue. As the nation's longest-running program, the Milwaukee Parent Choice Program (MPCP) provides an important case study. The fiscal impact of Milwaukee's program has evolved in very significant ways over its 18-year…

Throughout the history of publicly-funded voucher programs--enacted and proposed--the impact on taxpayers has been a recurring issue. As the nation's longest-running program, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) provides an important case study. The fiscal impact of Milwaukee's program has evolved in very significant ways over its 18-year…

Reports the results of a case study of the political decision-making process in Wisconsin through which control over educational finance reform was exercised between January, 1972, and August, 1973. (Author)

The five papers in this document first apply the criteria of adequacy, equity, efficiency, and liberty to financing school choice programs and then consider programmatic issues related to choice. Following an introduction by Suzanne Langston Juday entitled "Evaluating Education Finance Policy Decisions," section 1 consists of an overview…

This document reports the findings of a study assessing the status of school finance in Wisconsin and recommending preferred methods for funding the public schools. Seventy-nine topics were considered in five areas: state support, general aid, categorical aid, factors affecting school costs, and other topics. The study's recommendations regarding…

The simulation showed that tax rates tend to become more unequal as spending variation goes up. Although this runs counter to the general goals of reform, the analysis showed that the lowest income, lowest wealth, and lowest spending districts benefited at the expense of high income districts. (Author/IRT)

This volume contains three papers that evaluate student equality resulting from school financing programs. The papers are based on the premise that student equity can be measured by comparing how much school districts spend. In the first paper the author presents a systematic analysis of several measures of equity and the implication of using each…

This paper is primarily concerned with identifying and explicating the environmental forces and political factors responsible for legislative enactment of major school finance changes in Wisconsin in 1973. Easton's political systems theory serves as a conceptual framework for the study. In addition, Lindblom's leadership model, Truman's interest…

During 1996-97 each of the three branches of Wisconsin State government--the judiciary, the executive, and the legislative--experienced substantial activity regarding educational finance policies. After describing Wisconsin's current school-finance system, this paper examines Wisconsin school finance based on the 1996-97 actions of the judiciary,…

The task force was charged with the responsibility of reexamining the whole base for financing public elementary and secondary education in Wisconsin, making recommendations for shifting the base of elementary and secondary school funding from the local property tax to other means of public support to eliminate the disparity of educational…

This paper traces the development of school finance reform pressures in Wisconsin from pressure in 1967 for property tax reform to 1973 legislative reform proposals. The 1973 proposal is designed to provide further equalization of educational opportunity to all Wisconsin students and to guarantee adequate financial resources to provide these…

This document is a history of Wisconsin's equalization aid formula, embodying all the formula studies conducted since 1947, along with all the actions taken by Wisconsin legislatures and governors since 1927. The introduction provides the constitutional and statutory rationale for state education aid, and lists the committees that have studied the…