Reviews recent state and federal court decisions dealing with issues relevant to educational finance. Within the broad area of elementary-secondary education, specific cases involve school tax assessments, allocation of state school aid, school tax levy elections, and public support of a private segregated school. (JG)

Counselors must be aware of the political forces that affect their work and develop a sense of political acumen in dealing with these forces. Effective approaches for counselors to employ in dealing with school boards are personal contact, having needs assessment information available, and presenting options. (Author)

A dramatic, carefully planned, and well-timed campaign will convince voters to vote "yes" on school bonds. Outlines a 10-step program that will ensure winning at the polls. (MLF)

Analysis of school bond elections in South Dakota and in South Carolina reveal some common patterns that can help school leaders conduct a successful campaign. Key recommendations include the following: (1) assemble a diverse community task force; (2) focus on "yes" voters; (3) plan early and stress personal contact; (4) bring in expert…

The little town of Benson, Vermont, set a national record by voting down its proposed school budget 12 times. This paper reviews the facts leading up to the situation, providing the Benson residents' point of view, which was that they did not regard the system as their own and they felt that taxpayers' money was being wasted by the system. (SM)

This paper presents a case study of a rural community exhibiting a dramatic turnaround in community support for a new school bond issue. Demographic change was partly responsible for the change in community attitudes, with two waves of immigration altering the long-term conservative orientation of this community. After a series of failed…

The primary goal of this study was to develop a handbook containing guidelines needed to pass a bond issue for the construction of new facilities at Cleveland County Technical Institute (North Carolina). Following a literature search, ten presidents of community colleges or technical institutes were interviewed, and the resulting handbook was…

School budget problems are discussed in 13 chapters, and solutions are suggested. Case studies present successful experiences with various problems while brief subsections summarize recommended actions. The first two chapters note that budget problems are worsening and trace the causes to tax revolts, state involvement in education, and the…

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL BOARDS AND THEIR MEMBERS ARE INVESTIGATED, AND A DIFFERENTIATION IS MADE BETWEEN EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE BOARDS. TWENTY-SEVEN SCHOOL DISTRICTS, STRATIFIED BY REGION AND EFFECTIVENESS, WERE INCLUDED IN THE SAMPLE. INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONNAIRES WERE USED TO OBTAIN DATA FROM ALL CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS,…

This bibliography contains annotations of 11 journal articles, papers, and books examining different aspects of school budget elections. Entries include materials on voter behavior, the so-called "taxpayers' revolt," suggestions to school districts on how to win financial elections, campaign strategies, citizens' attitudes in school tax voting,…

This report advises school systems of the numerous public relations resources available and challenges schools to put communication ideas into action. The ideas described, based on exhibits prepared by selected school systems at the invitation of the NSPRA, have been developed in many different types of school districts across the country. The…

The research reported here addresses the impact of school district consolidation on constituent support of educational expenditures. It is hypothesized that, regardless of the success of consolidation in satisfying its stated objective of providing a qualitatively improved education more efficiently, the loss of local control will, under certain…

Developed by a team of strategists to help local school districts in Michigan win school millage elections, this manual details the factors that go into a successful election campaign. The campaign is broken into five phases: building a coalition, surveying and gathering information, developing a campaign theme and campaign plan, identifying and…

This paper examines several types of school referenda with a view to examining how such referenda have served to limit or reinforce educational resource inequalities. Drawing on the results of previous studies and the author's research on California referenda, the paper seeks to provide answers to four crucial questions. First, to what extent are…