I examine whether the impact of the Great Recession on school district spending, the allocation of resources, and student achievement varied depending on the strength of state's teachers' unions. Employing a diff-in-diff-in-diff identification strategy, I find that school districts in states with strong teachers' unions experienced significantly…

In a study that matched Wisconsin 1974 taxpayers with the school districts where they reside, it was found that poor people live in similar kinds of school districts (defined by school district property wealth, median family income, per pupil expenditure etc.) as nonpoor people. Implications of the research are discussed. (Author/LC)

School district central office administrators were studied to determine the effects of state and federal regulatory policies for categorical funding on administrative costs and administrator behavior. Findings showed significant hidden program costs for local districts. Additionally, regulations diverted local managers from educational concerns to…

This paper reports results of a 1979 survey of heads of evaluation units in public school districts and state departments of education. The survey was primarily concerned with current versus ideal procedures for determining program evaluation budgets and evaluators' perceived reasons for the low fiscal priority given evaluation activities.…

A comparison of Ohio's financially troubled districts (FTD) with its financially nontroubled districts (FNTD) revealed that FTD are characterized by special cost students, limited fiscal capacity, and low tax effort. FTD also tend to be either large city or rural districts, and are not characterized by overstaffing, severe declining enrollment, or…

Studying school district spending in New York State revealed that districts increased real expenditures per pupil by 46% between 1980 and 1992. A large portion of the spending has gone to disabled students. Also discussed are the growth in administrative expenditures, responses to changing enrollments, and teacher compensation. (SLD)

This article describes how four Texas school districts responded to changed fiscal conditions following implementation of reforms designed to bring greater equity to Texas school finance. Case studies in two poor districts show that little new money was spent on improvements to the core curriculum. (SLD)

Recent national information is presented on the relationships among school district poverty, local fiscal needs and capacities, and Chapter 1 allocation levels. Focus is on assessing how the relationship between poverty and local fiscal capacity affects a school district's state/local revenue base. Targeting federal compensatory aid correctly is…

The effectiveness of indirect incentive grants by California on school district spending was investigated by using state data to document the impact of the incentives under Senate Bill 813 (1983). Incentives appeared to be more effective in directing spending toward direct instruction than other grants. (SLD)

Budgetary and fiscal data from 11 school districts of varying wealth in New Jersey suggest that, in the first year of the state's Quality Education Act, the law has only modestly increased fiscal equality, with only minor cuts in funding in wealthy districts and some program improvement in poorer ones. (SLD)

Nine major forces which will have influenced California public schools in the 1970-80 decade are discussed: reform initiatives; declining enrollment; declining public support; the Serrano decision; collective bargaining; Proposition 13; school integration; likelihood of an educational voucher system; and a proposed statewide spending limit. (MH)

Analysis of comparative case studies in four high- and low-wealth school districts in Kentucky indicates that, following recent school finance reform initiatives, expenditures increased in all districts but that spending patterns changed only incrementally. Nonprogramatic financial reporting masks the extent to which reform dollars are supporting…