The revisionist view that property taxes are progressive rather than regressive is contradicted by research that shows the property tax takes proportionately more from the low-income taxpayer than it does from the middle- or high-income taxpayer. (Author/MLF)

This policy brief describes how the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has approached the objectives of educational equity and adequacy over the past decade and a half, and reveals how their current finance research has begun to explicitly link the level and use of resources with strategies that districts and schools can deploy to…

Several new school finance reform issues are emerging that require further analysis. The first issue is the impact of previous school finance reforms especially regarding their fiscal, programmatic, and governance effects. More analysis is also needed of the effects of the composition of the property tax base and the structure of state…

This paper examines past school finance reforms of the 1970's, current reforms in the 1980's, and future reforms in the 1990's. Fiscal inequities targeted in the reforms of the seventies resulted in major structural changes in the school finance systems of over 30 states. The reforms not only improved fiscal equity but helped increase…

Based on a study of how eight states have pursued educational reform, this booklet reviews new issues facing school finance as a result of the recent upsurge of interest in educational improvement. The booklet has four sections. The first section discusses changing state fiscal and political contexts within which reforms are being debated. Section…

An overview of 1977 state reforms is presented here as well as current trends in litigation strategies, status of policy research on emerging issues, and prospects for 1978. The first section describes important finance reforms and modifications as well as recent court decisions in school finance and the changes that are emerging in school finance…

This booklet summarizes the recent debate over the regressivity or progressivity of the property tax and presents some evidence on how the property tax burden is distributed among income classes. Section 1 discusses property tax incidence under both the conventional and new economic views. Discussed specifically are the conditions under which…

The focus of this policy brief is on efforts to redesign state and district school finance systems to align them more closely with the standards-based education reform movement. Past efforts to offset fiscal disparities with state aid in low-property wealth districts have only been moderately successful. Part of the problem lies in the fact that…

School finance is a highly visible issue. Recent sweeping state supreme court decisions have overturned finance structures in New Jersey, Texas, and Kentucky. There are 16 additional states with active or planned cases making school finance litigation, fiscal inequalities, and school finance reform major issues in the state education policy…

Discusses new research directions for school finance that should accompany a national policy shift toward improving education quality. Traces the evolution of school finance, outlines school finance topics related to recently enacted state education reforms, and projects future education policy isues and related financial research problems.…

Investigates alternative measures of school district wealth, focusing on the issue of intergovernmental aid (particularly equalization aid), arguments for and against different wealth measures, jurisdictional implications of the use of alternative wealth measures in four states, and the effect of alternative wealth measures on state equalization…

Notes that today school finance reform encompasses a broad range of issues, from extra needs of expensive items, difficulty to educate pupils, to equitable aid programs to restructuring of state and local tax systems. (Author/AM)

This paper presents strategies for designing and implementing new and more effective approaches to school-finance structures. The first section discusses state school-finance systems, their inadequacies, and how they have changed dramatically in several states. It explores how varieties of standard school-finance formulas may actually exacerbate…

In the 1980s, equity concerns will come into conflict with efficiency concerns in school financing. This paper attempts to trace the changing nature of these concerns during the 1970s and to suggest trends for education financing in the 1980s. The first section discusses equity issues related to state school finance reforms and suggests that…