Equity and Excellence in School Finance

In The Story of the Education Dollar, Odden, Monk, Nakib and Picus describe some basic facts about education spending in the United States to facilitate an understanding of the level and uses of the federal government's policies on education funding. The purpose of the authors' discussion is to argue that public education facilities need to change their focus on the consumption of educational resources to a focus on producing high levels of student achievement. They contend that such a redirection in focus will require large improvements in student achievement, given that only about 10 percent of students currently attain the desired level of achievement across the board in mathematics, science, writing, history, geography and civics. James Traub expands on their discussion to argue for the necessary inclusion of after-care activities for inner-city youth in any successful educational spending program.

Odden et al. note that their analysis of spending patterns across the 50 states is supported by the conclusions reached by the Finance Center of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), although the results of their research did diverge in some significant ways. Odden et al. examined spending and staffing patterns at the district and school levels. They also scrutinized staffing patterns of expenditures by function and program and spending across curriculum content areas in California, Florida and New York. Their m

. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Notably Odden, James Traub, College Boards, Nakib Picus, Florida York, York Brooklyn, Education CPRE, Roots Wings, odden et, student achievement, odden et al, et al, education spending, Magazine January, public education, Kappan October, inner-city youth, et al's, school district, education system, odden et al's, school districts, improve student achievement, argue public education, levels student achievement,
Approximate Word count = 1132
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)