Instead of adopting an entirely new school finance system to replace an inequitable system threatened by lawsuits, the Arkansas legislature has chosen to repair Act 34 of 1983. Two major changes enacted in 1993 (recalculation of state aid for districts experiencing growth and a change in a district's real property charges when calculating state…

In 1995, Arkansas enacted two new bills that changed the way in which schools were financed. Act 916 required all school districts to levy a 25-mill tax based on an assessment ratio of 20 percent of use value on all property for maintenance and operation. The act also revised biennial appropriations for the State Department of Education,…

Arkansas' new finance law, Act 917, is difficult to understand because it has not been logically organized. This paper explains in detail the following provisions of the law: average daily membership (ADM) computation; local share; minimum and maximum millage; state support (including how priorities are set and the forms of state aid not covered,…