This paper examines changes in California's school finance system over the past 35 years. It focuses specifically on the growth of categorical program funding. The study assesses the nature and magnitude of changes, the causes of those changes, the significance of those changes for the capacity of schools to provide high quality educational services, and proposes alternative models to the existing system of categorical funding. The specific context for assessing the changes in the structure of school finance is its impact on equity, adequacy, flexibility and choice, efficiency, predictability and stability, rationality, and accountability. (Contains 1 figure, 8 tables, and 23 endnotes.)