Providing pre-college teachers with an analysis of tax reform is the primary goal of this publication. The present tax system is both inefficient and inequitable. Three goals of tax reform proposals are detailed: (1) fairness--the dimensions of horizontal equity, or equal treatment of equals however defined, and vertical equity, reflecting the…

This paper, number 18 in a series, chronicles the politics of school finance reform in the state of California from the mid-sixties to the passage of Proposition 13. It provides a description of the school finance setting prior to the consideration of Assembly Bill 65, including such events as the Serrano I and II decisions and the state…

This report summarizes the status of states' budgets at the end of fiscal year 1997. The year's strong national economy boosted tax revenues and helped to decrease welfare rolls. Unemployment at the end of 1997 was below 5 percent nationally and real GDP growth was 3.5 percent for the first 3 quarters of the year. These indicators translate into…

This paper analyzes Texas Senate Bill 351 that reforms public school funding. The bill provides for additional state funding and significant increases in local property taxes. The bill creates county education taxing units to neutralize the enormous property wealth differences found among the state's 1,056 school districts. It also provides a…

State litigation involving unconstitutional school financing systems are described in this document, which focuses on efforts in Texas to reform the financing of public education. Since its school finance system was declared unconstitutional in 1987, two subsequent proposals have been struck down by the Texas Supreme Court for the following…

This report summarizes the proposed budgets for U.S. public elementary and secondary education for fiscal year 1998 and describes the budgets and the major factors that influence those budgets. It is the second in a series of "State Fiscal Briefs" on education finance by the Center for the Study of the States. The report is primarily based on…

This report presents two large tables showing trends in the financing of public higher education since 1977-78. Introductory information explains how to use the tables, the data-time relationship (whether fiscal year, academic year, or calendar year), and includes a sample chart constructed from one state's data. The raw data used for these…

This report presents comparative data governing the financing of public higher education in each state and the District of Columbia. The model used in data analysis involves the following nine data elements: population, number of high school graduates, public full-time equivalent enrollment, taxable resources, tax revenue collected, state and…

This annual report presents comparative trend data covering enrollment, appropriations, tuition, and other factors for fiscal year 1996 for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. A 12-element data set covers all aspects of state education financing: accessibility and attractiveness; tax utilization; legislative budgeting; role of tuition; and…

In the 1989 "Edgewood vs. Kirby" decision, the Supreme Court of Texas ordered the Legislature to correct the inequality in funding between the state's richest and poorest school districts. In response to the court's order, the Legislature recently enacted Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) intended to provide Texas' school districts with equal access…