Uses Cobb and Elder's theory of agenda setting in public policy arena to assess the politics and effects of school finance during the 1970s and 1980s. Four triggering mechanisms catapult issues to the formal policy agenda: unanticipated events, technological changes, ecological changes, and biases in resource distribution. Four categories of policy initiators respond: exploiters, circumstantial reactors, do-gooders, and adjusters. (MLH)