Describes statutory limitations on taxation or spending adopted in eight states and the effects on educational programs. (WD)

Punitive damages are almost commonplace with multimillion dollar awards occurring monthly. Survey responses from 190 secondary school principals and 290 school attorneys indicate that schools have a serious problem. Concerns about liability and its costs have caused a change in school programs. Lists four tort reform measures that would be helpful…

Explains New Jersey law on the question of local school districts purchasing textbooks for loan to private and parochial schools. The objections of the New Jersey Education Association to these practices are noted. (SJL)

This report provides an overview of education in Louisiana. The study on which the report is based on detailed examinations of financial and statistical data in nine individual school districts, covering the years 1996 to 1999. The study found that some key financial data were inaccurate and, in some cases, not even available. It examined the cost…

This report presents the findings and recommendations of a study of New Mexico's financing of education. A task force, created in 1995 by the state legislature, was charged with reviewing public school funding for the purpose of introducing legislation to reform the system. For the study, hired consultants reviewed historical documents, held…

Discusses whether school boards can indemnify board members or officials for legal fees generated by challenges to recall election proceedings. Focuses on Wisconsin, where recalls need not be based on cause. Concludes that, because recalls such as Wisconsin's are essentially political, boards should not pay the legal fees involved. (Author/RW)

This document is a handbook on school organization and finance in Washington State. It encompasses legislation passed during the 1990 and 1991 legislative sessions and school district fiscal data through the 1990-91 school year. The guide attempts to simplify the complex subject of school finance for use by educators, policy makers, and the…

Findings of a review of school district administrative spending conducted by the Mississippi Legislature's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) Committee are presented in this report. Findings indicate that Mississippi school districts paid $94 million in salaries to central office administrators and principals in fiscal year 1992.…

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act is intended to promote coordinated improvements in the nation's education system at the state and local levels. To measure the effectiveness of this initiative, Congress charged the Government Accounting Office to review Goals 2000 efforts to determine how program funds have been spent and how state and local…

This paper summarizes the main provisions of Kansas' School District Finance and Quality Performance Act (SDFQP). The paper discusses state financial aid and how this is affected by decreasing enrollment, program weight, low-enrollment weight, correlation weight, transportation weight, at-risk pupil weight, school-facilities weight, and ancillary…

This is the text of the law governing the New York City Community School District System. The law defines the relationship of the Board of Education of the City with the Community School Districts and the means by which the Community Districts are to be governed. The composition of the District School Boards and the election procedure for them are…

This report, which focuses on education in Louisiana, gives the results of research on various education issues in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states and provides information on how southern states collect and use different education-related data. The article discusses education costs and revenues, as well as how financial, student,…

This document examines Colorado's size factor, which is intended to compensate for differences in per-pupil costs that are attributable to economies of scale; the formula provides additional money based on each district's enrollment. The report is organized by the following three areas: (1) background on Colorado's size factor, including a…

The United States Supreme Court has made it clear that Congress can tax state bonds. All public purpose bonds issued by school districts must be issued in a registered format in order to continue their tax-exempt status. (MLF)

Constitutional challenges to state statutory schema for distributing education dollars to local school districts has provided a study course of litigation in state court systems since the early 1970s. This paper is an analysis of 10 of these cases, which were ruled upon in the first half of the 1990s. The focus is on constitutional deficiency and…