Lawsuits challenging state methods for funding public schools have been launched in 46 of the 50 states, and in recent years they have been extraordinarily successful. Since 1989, plaintiffs have prevailed in over 65 percent of the final liability decisions in cases based on "adequacy claims"--assertions that all students have a constitutional right to a meaningful educational opportunity. This appears to be related to a major shift in legal strategy by plaintiff attorneys. At the end of the 1980s, civil rights lawyers changed their focus--from equal protection claims based on disparities among school districts in the level of educational funding to claims based on opportunities for a basic level of education guaranteed by specific provisions in state constitutions. What the court orders have done is to require states to ensure that schools have the resources to provide their students a fair opportunity to meet the state's own standards. The history of the state court education adequacy cases has shown that substantial gains in reducing achievement gaps can indeed be realized if states provide schools sufficient resources to do so and schools use them well.