Allocation of Educational Resources

Berne and Stiefel believe that the importance of equity in the nation's schools will become more important as the amount of funding available to schools decreases. So long as funding is increasing and interested constituencies receive additional monies, there is unlikely to be much distributional concern, even though the funding may be distributed in what some perceive as an inequitable manner. However, once the funding begins to shrink and interested parties are left to compete for smaller amounts of money, the method of distribution can become a highly contentious issue (2).

The authors also suggest that vertical equity could be affected depending on the federal governmen

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mit to problems with horizontal equity. For example, since few children are alike in all or even most areas, they suggest that horizontal equity is best applied to subgroups where there are similarities. In this way, a marriage between vertical and horizontal equity can be achieved with vertical equity used to identify subgroups and horizontal equity used to allocate resources within those subgroups (13). Identifying valid characteristics on which to base equity is a value judgment on which the authors offer some guidance. They use three types of characteristics (child-based, district-based and program-based) and identify legitimate, controversial and illegitimate characteristics for each type. Berne and Stiefel admit that as value judgments, these cannot be considered absolute or permanent in their application, but were generally recognized by the educational community at the point the authors presented them. Legitimate child-based differences include learning disabilities, inadequate preschooling and physical or mental handicaps. Controversial differences at this level are age and grade, and illegitimate differences are sex, race and ethnicity. At the district-based level, legitimate differences include mainly technologic
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Berne Stiefel, , berne stiefel, school finance, horizontal equity, unit analysis, vertical equity, equal opportunity, pupil unit analysis, school districts, pupil unit, district unit analysis, school finance equity, educational services, finance equity, unequal treatment unequals, equity berne stiefel, University Press,
Approximate Word count = 2402
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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