In 1971 the California Supreme Court published America's most significant court decision in recent decades affecting a state's program of funding the operation of its public schools. This was followed by court decisions in Minnesota, Texas, and New Jersey. Lawsuits based on the California case of Serrano v. Priest are being filed in courts…

Reviewing literature on educational finance and law, this paper analyzes the rationale for the recent school finance reform movement and recounts the movement's progress from 1965 to 1979. An overview of the problem discusses state equalization programs' ability to provide financial equity and the relationship of financial equity to equal…

This paper traces the arguments and effects of both the Serrano and Rodriguez decisions and examines the state litigation and legislation spawned by them. The author notes that while the pace of school finance reform litigation has slowed, it has not halted altogether. It is now more tailored to the characteristics of the individual states…