If one relies on newspaper headlines for education funding information, one might conclude that America's schools suffer from a perpetual fiscal crisis, every year perched precariously on the brink of financial ruin, never knowing whether there will be sufficient funding to continue operating. Budgetary shortfalls, school district bankruptcies,…

Education may be only major social activity lacking publicly accepted composite indicator. A national education index could incorporate dimensions such as student performance, public support for education, children's conditions, and quality of educational service. Such a system might monitor progress, foster accountability, facilitate…

The U.S. political process has been used to define an "adequate" education, in terms of resources, procedures, content, or outcomes. The marketplace also allows individuals to define adequacy through various voucher arrangements. Both mechanisms should be used, based on whether public or private interests are paramount in a particular…

Analyzes the recent role of the Federal Government in public education in view of the reported rural bias of the Congress and the urban bias of the Executive. (JM)

The position is presented that local property taxes provide a stable source of income during periods of economic downturn and that state taxes and disbursements for education are less likely to receive popular support. (CTM)

Characterized by rapid growth and the increasing infusion of federal money into schools, the 1960s and 1970s can be labeled the "Federal Era" in U.S. educational policy making. This period produced three major initiatives to enhance the quality of educational opportunity: the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Titles I and VII…

Demography, economics, concentrated decision making, and politicization, will constitute the future policymaking environment for education. In addition, these conditions are likely to have a direct effect upon educators themselves; they will provoke higher levels of conflict within and among education organizations. (Author/BW)

Noting that American society has conventionally relied on both the political process and the marketplace to arrive at a "definition" of adequate education, but that the political process fails to account for individual preferences while the marketplace can cater to many individual preferences, this paper attempts to combine the two…

In light of the passage of Proposition 13 in California, which requires rethinking of the state's school financing structure, the author assesses the advantages and disadvantages of complete state financing v retaining some proportion of the revenue function at the local level. (Author/SJL)

Present and past efforts to enhance school efficiency have failed. Progressive Era reforms of a half-century ago contributed to the creation of a publicly insensitive, professionally dominated education system. Accountability enthusiasts of the '70s failed to understand the fundamental misalignment between the assumptions underlying private sector…