BBCSS Project: Committee on Education Finance: Equity, Adequacy, and Productivity

In response to a Congressional mandate, the Committee on Education Finance: Equity, Adequacy, and Productivity conducted a three-year study of the ways in which K-12 education was financed in the various states and a comprehensive analysis of the research in order to clarify the relationships between resources, need, and performance. The purposes of the study were (1) to explore the complex legal, economic, organizational, and pedagogical issues surrounding the financing of public education; and (2) to develop a set of policy options and recommendations that will inform Federal and state policy and to provide scientific data and analysis for judicial decision making. There are a number of imperatives facing state and local policy makers: the need to provide an equitable and legally sustainable system for funding education; the need to develop the capacity and incentives that will permit all students to thrive; and, given current budget realities, the need to find ways to raise and use the funds available for K-12 education in the most productive manner. Major components of the study address each of these needs. They include:

review of the legal and constitutional context of school finance and equalization programs
review of existing state and local finance structures and operations
exploration of the relationships between resources, instruction, and students' learning needs; discussion of illustrative
indicators of student, school, and system performance
analysis of alternative organizational structures and strategies and their relationships to costs and outcomes
development of funding models to illustrate and evaluate the range of policy options

As part of this 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 collection of papers, Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance: Issues and Perspectives, explores such topics as:

What do the terms "equity" and "adequacy" in school finance really mean?
What is the impact of court-ordered school finance reform on spending disparities?
How has school finance reform been pursued through litigation?
How do school districts use money from finance reform?
What are the politics of school finance reform?
What policy options are available to states facing new challenges from court decisions mandating adequacy in school finance?