This article asserts that although there has been a consistently increasing demand on both the national and state levels for alignment of resources (inputs) to improved student outcomes (outputs), the lack of a systematic and well-defined policy portfolio has limited reform effectiveness. This article specifically examines the overreliance on…

While there is a wealth of research on school finance equity and adequacy, and school finance theory clearly documents differences between the two concepts, no study has examined whether the reforms engendered by each approach actually differ in terms of resource distribution. This study examines the issues using district level data on expenditure…

Describes the California legislature's education-related response to Proposition 13 and analyzes the likely long-range effects of that response--including its effect on revenue stability, expenditure equality, and school governance. (Author/IRT)

This article describes the past 25 years of school finance policy reforms, illustrates tensions among various value proponents, and distills commonalities of reform efforts and their effects. Speculations on the probable points of conflict for the 1980s are provided. (Author/LC)

Policymakers continue to face major challenges in education finance, despite a history of reforms. Today's challenges include ensuring financial adequacy, maintaining gains in distributional equality, coping with the increasing need for teachers, satisfying public preference for diversity in schools and programs, and devising performance…

Behind the concept of power equalization is the assumption that at any specified tax rate every school district in a State, regardless of wealth, has the same dollar resource level per pupil. A State established schedule of local district funding level choices related to tax rates is essential; however, tax levels are always a product of the…

This article contends that a new concept of education finance has emerged in response to substantial alterations in the U.S. education policy environment. The major distinction between modern and old is that the latter was principally concerned with arrangements of inputs in K-12 schooling. The former, modern-era education finance, is concerned…