Korea is recognized as a high-performing country in international achievement studies; however, many researchers in and outside Korea have been worried about the existing gaps between high-socioeconomic and low-socioeconomic (SES) students in both student achievement and educational resources. We analyzed the resource and output equity of Korean…

This article aims to "modernize" the current legal debate over inequitable public school funding at the state and local level. The 1973 Supreme Court case of "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" established precedent, allowing for property-tax based education funding programs at the state-level--a major source of local inequality…

This quantitative study investigated the degree to which financial resources supporting teachers was equitably distributed in Oklahoma. Teachers are an important resource and their importance is being increasingly emphasized as educators attempt to increase student achievement. Every student educated in Oklahoma should have an equal right to…

The goal of this study is to apply a conventional education cost-function approach for estimating the sensitivity of cost models and predicted education costs to the inclusion of school district level racial composition variables and further to test whether race neutral alternatives sufficiently capture the additional costs associated with school…

Traditionally, financing the construction of school facilities has been a local responsibility. In the past several decades, states have increased their support for school facilities. Using data collected from various sources, this study first classifies the design of capital aid programs in all 50 states into various categories based on the scope…

This article addresses the design and application of cost adjustments in state school finance policies intended to compensate local public school districts for differences in the costs of recruiting and retaining teachers. Broadly speaking, the state policy objective for including cost adjustments to state aid for such things as teacher cost…

In this study, we investigate the types of overlay provisions used in public school funding and the impacts that these provisions can have on equity, fiscal neutrality, and adequacy in school funding. We begin by reviewing the various overlay provisions that could be used by states. We then turn to an analysis of Indiana's 2004 foundation aid…

Two years ago a fiscal equity analysis assessed the current Virginia equalization formula over its history (fiscal year 1975-fiscal year 2003). The findings indicated by accepted equity statistics were that the level of equity improved from fiscal year 1975 through fiscal year 1994 and leveled off from fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 2003.…

This article examines recent trends in the allocation of education dollars across school districts, investigating in particular the impact of federal dollars on school funding disparities. Using both the coefficient of variation and the range ratio to evaluate spending disparities, this article estimates that over the 1990s, funding disparities…

This study analyzed the degree to which state education funding systems supported social justice for the 1998-99 school year, where social justice was operationalized using the theory of vertical equity and research-based factors that placed students at risk of academic failure. The results of the study combined content analysis and statistical…

The Illinois Supreme Court has permitted the General Assembly to create a system of public school funding that is widely disparate and disadvantageous to students in school districts with low-property wealth. In this Article, I argue that the court has not adequately considered the nexus between the Uniformity of Taxation provision and the…

Using school-level descriptive data, this study examined the distribution of teachers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in an attempt to build on previous research concerning the equity of the finance system in the state. Rather than focusing on revenue from the perspective of horizontal equity, this study used human resource data to examine the…

Voters in the State of Michigan reformed K-12 school financing significantly in 1994. The reform largely removed local government from playing a role in the determination of school finance and lodged this authority mainly with state government. In this article we examine the long-term impacts of the reform legislation. We find that although the…

The inscription on the internal pedestal of the Statue of Liberty proclaiming "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" today is an ideal of another age. Compared with those of other developing countries, U.S. poverty rates are extraordinarily high, as are the odds of remaining in poverty intergenerationally. No longer do immigrants…

The purpose of compensatory education is grounded in the history and practice of addressing the effects of poverty on teaching and learning. The intended purpose of compensatory education was to provide additional investment in human capital for low-income students to compensate for the higher investments in human capital afforded to more…