The Stealth Inequities of School Funding

The Stealth Inequities of School Funding PDF Author: Bruce D. Baker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational equalization
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
"In the education world, the existence of funding inequities has long been a known fact, but the sources of these inequities have not always been obvious. Typically, local property tax variation has been blamed as the sole, or at least primary, cause of inequalities and called for greater state funding as the solution. In practice, however, it is seen that states providing a large share of state aid are not necessarily more equitable in their distribution of school funding. There must therefore be more to the story behind funding inequities. This report tries to provide a fuller picture of the problem so that more is known about what stands in the way of equity. The two chapters that follow explore stealth inequities in school finance, which are defined as often-overlooked features of school funding systems that tend to exacerbate inequities in per-pupil spending rather than reduce them, and that do so in a way that favors communities with the least need ... -- "regressive" school funding distributions where children attending school in higher-poverty districts still have substantially less access to state and local revenue than children attending school in lower-poverty districts"--Page 1.

The Stealth Inequities of School Funding

The Stealth Inequities of School Funding PDF Author: Bruce D. Baker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational equalization
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
"In the education world, the existence of funding inequities has long been a known fact, but the sources of these inequities have not always been obvious. Typically, local property tax variation has been blamed as the sole, or at least primary, cause of inequalities and called for greater state funding as the solution. In practice, however, it is seen that states providing a large share of state aid are not necessarily more equitable in their distribution of school funding. There must therefore be more to the story behind funding inequities. This report tries to provide a fuller picture of the problem so that more is known about what stands in the way of equity. The two chapters that follow explore stealth inequities in school finance, which are defined as often-overlooked features of school funding systems that tend to exacerbate inequities in per-pupil spending rather than reduce them, and that do so in a way that favors communities with the least need ... -- "regressive" school funding distributions where children attending school in higher-poverty districts still have substantially less access to state and local revenue than children attending school in lower-poverty districts"--Page 1.

Educational Inequality and School Finance

Educational Inequality and School Finance PDF Author: Bruce D. Baker
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 1682532445
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
In Educational Inequality and School Finance, Bruce D. Baker offers a comprehensive examination of how US public schools receive and spend money. Drawing on extensive longitudinal data and numerous studies of states and districts, he provides a vivid and dismaying portrait of the stagnation of state investment in public education and the continuing challenges of achieving equity and adequacy in school funding. Baker explores school finance, the school and classroom resources derived from school funding, and how and why those resources matter. He provides a critical examination of popular assumptions that undergird the policy discourse around school funding—notably, that money doesn’t matter and that we are spending more and getting less—and shows how these misunderstandings contribute to our reluctance to increase investment in education at a time when the demands on our educational system are rising. Through an introduction to the concepts of adequacy, equity, productivity, and efficiency, Baker shows how these can be used to evaluate policy reforms. He argues that we know a great deal about the role and importance of money in schools, the mechanisms through which money matters for student outcomes, and the trade-offs involved, and he presents a framework for designing and financing an equitable and adequate public education system, with balanced and stable sources of revenue. Educational Inequality and School Finance takes an issue all too often relegated to technical experts and makes it accessible for broader public empowerment and engagement.

The Thief in the Classroom

The Thief in the Classroom PDF Author: Jeff Swensson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475860293
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
An undetected thief lurks in America’s classrooms: funding for public education. Dynamic instruction, robust learning, and student futures are stolen when funding for public education is inadequate and inequitable. The devastating impact of this thievery is examined throughout this book. Student engagement with the potential and promise of traditional public education is stolen by funding formulas crafted by state legislatures. Theft in the classroom results when these funding schemes misdirect and disconnect the resources required to educate all US students. Called upon to deal with an ever-changing cascade of mandates, standards, legislation, and counterproductive testing marathons, but provided with funding so inadequate that instruction is often little better than anemic “test prep,” public educators in pursuit of the common good are robbed by insufficient funding. Although funding for public education is a topic unlikely to command frequent public discussion, no topic is more consequential for achievement, adequacy, and social justice in the learning, lives, and futures of America’s children and young people.

Measuring Inequity in School Funding

Measuring Inequity in School Funding PDF Author: Diana Epstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
Low-income children tend to be concentrated in low-income school districts, and these children often attend schools that receive far fewer resources per pupil despite their greater need. Since education is primarily a state responsibility, more than 90 percent of school funding comes from state and local sources, and the federal government provides the rest. Districts have traditionally drawn much of their revenue from local property taxes, which means districts in high-wealth parts of a state are often funded more generously than districts in low-wealth areas. Over time, some states have moved to school finance models in which districts receive more funding from state sources and rely less on local revenue streams. The shift to higher proportions of state funding is aimed at ensuring districts in lower-wealth areas have access to additional resources so funding across districts is more equitable. In other states, however, the level of school funding is still largely driven by local taxes. This paper discusses the differences in per pupil funding across states by highlighting measures of spending and effort. It then examines the problem of intrastate fiscal inequity and surveys some of the different measures that are used to characterize a state's level of funding equity among districts within a state. It then compares and contrasts the different measures and presents data on states' fiscal equity using a variety of measures. The data demonstrate that many states are not fairly funding their school districts. (Contains 4 figures and 19 endnotes.).

Designed to Fail

Designed to Fail PDF Author: Roseann Liu
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226832716
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
"When we think of educational inequalities, money often seems to be an obvious way of fixing them. After all, how else can schools be improved but through an influx of resources, be they aimed at updating old facilities, purchasing computers, or even acquiring new textbooks? But as Roseann Liu argues in "Designed to Fail," even when schools do get desperately needed funding, much is broken about the way that resources are allocated, even when we account for socioeconomic inequality. Liu sets out to show that even when you account for a full range of socioeconomic statuses, white kids are getting more school funding per pupil than Black and Brown kids. Looking to battles over school funding in Pennsylvania, she sets out to show the legal and social reasons why racial inequality in education is so deeply entrenched. Liu shows that in Pennsylvania, as in several other states, one policy, officially referred to as "hold harmless" by politicians and "hold harmful" by antiracist advocates, guarantees that school districts receive at least as much money as they received during a baseline year, regardless of increases or decreases to student enrollment. This means that poor white rural areas that have seen declining student populations are still getting funding for more students than they currently serve, while expanding Black and Brown urban districts are squeezed. But advocates have learned that they can't win if they talk about race. From lawyers to activists to school superintendents, the people with the most power have watched as arguments based on race failed. In light of these failures, Liu calls for a reparations framework of school funding goes beyond redistributive approaches by not only accounting for current inequities of funding, but also reckoning with the compounded effects of intergenerational racism. This call makes for a book that is far more than a local history of school inequality"--

Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance

Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance PDF Author: Committee on Education Finance
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309520665
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Spending on K-12 education across the United States and across local school districts has long been characterized by great disparities--disparities that reflect differences in property wealth and tax rates. For more than a quarter-century, reformers have attempted to reduce these differences through court challenges and legislative action. As part of a broad study of education finance, the committee commissioned eight papers examining the history and consequences of school finance reform undertaken in the name of equity and adequacy. This thought-provoking, timely collection of papers explores such topics as: What do the terms "equity" and "adequacy" in school finance really mean? How are these terms relevant to the politics and litigation of school finance reform? What is the impact of court-ordered school finance reform on spending disparities? How do school districts use money from finance reform? What policy options are available to states facing new challenges from court decisions mandating adequacy in school finance? When measuring adequacy, how do you consider differences in student needs and regional costs?

School Funding and Student Achievement

School Funding and Student Achievement PDF Author: Andy Spears
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319103172
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
This Brief explores school funding reform in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1990, Kentucky passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act designed to overhaul that state’s education system. Two years later, Tennessee passed the Education Improvement Act which included the Basic Education Plan, designed to foster equity in funding among the state’s schools. Initiated as a result of lawsuits against the states’ educational systems, both programs dealt with school funding, specifically funding equalization among districts. This Brief examines the environments that precipitated funding reform in each state as well as the outcomes of the reforms on student achievement. The similarities and differences between the approaches in each state are analyzed and compared to related reform programs in other states. An in-depth study of regional educational reform in the United States, this Brief is of use to public policy scholars as well as education policy consultants and other school system or state education leaders.

School Finance and Education Equity

School Finance and Education Equity PDF Author: Bruce D. Baker
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 1682536823
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
This inspiring account of bipartisan political success delivers an expert breakdown of how and why Kansas—a politically conservative state—was able to craft a stable, balanced, and equitable system of funding for its public schools. Beyond a chronicle of one state’s achievements, School Finance and Education Equity provides invaluable policy guidance and lays out a blueprint that other states can use to strengthen their own public education systems. Readers are given an insider’s tour of the Kansas story by Bruce D. Baker, an academic researcher and expert witness in school finance litigation. With more than two decades of involvement with the state, Baker combines historical background, legal analysis, and political and economic contextual data—along with a gleaming wit—to present a thorough, enlightening narrative of Kansas’s K–12 funding journey. As Baker points out, other states can find much to learn here. He shows that, when it comes to school finance, Kansas serves as an exemplar in aligning resources to meet the promises of its constitution. State leaders rejected the pervasive notion that money doesn’t matter in education, and they gathered the data to prove that it does. Baker emphasizes that this kind of slow and steady success hinges on the ability of stakeholders to remain involved over time. Continuity is vitally important. Baker’s account highlights how persistence can overcome opposition, continuity can aid reform, and incremental gains can lead to big change. In an era of national ideological polarization and political and economic volatility, the lessons from Kansas are especially illuminating.

Making Money Matter

Making Money Matter PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309172888
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
The United States annually spends over $300 billion on public elementary and secondary education. As the nation enters the 21st century, it faces a major challenge: how best to tie this financial investment to the goal of high levels of achievement for all students. In addition, policymakers want assurance that education dollars are being raised and used in the most efficient and effective possible ways. The book covers such topics as: Legal and legislative efforts to reduce spending and achievement gaps. The shift from "equity" to "adequacy" as a new standard for determining fairness in education spending. The debate and the evidence over the productivity of American schools. Strategies for using school finance in support of broader reforms aimed at raising student achievement. This book contains a comprehensive review of the theory and practice of financing public schools by federal, state, and local governments in the United States. It distills the best available knowledge about the fairness and productivity of expenditures on education and assesses options for changing the finance system.

A New Look at Inequities in School Funding

A New Look at Inequities in School Funding PDF Author: Marguerite Roza
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government aid to education
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description