The funding of public K-12 education in the United States has been under fire for the past 25 years. During much of this period, the central issue underlying challenges to state funding of public K 12 education was equity in funding. The charge was that students in school districts with higher property value bases receives far more educational financial support than was true of students in school district with lower property value bases. Successful challenges led to K 12 educational funding reform in many states; however, these same challenges and the ensuing funding reforms in turn stimulated a backlash from both anti tax activists and citizens who decried the loss of local control over education. As a consequence, challenges with an anti tax bias and challenges with an anti centralization bias have joined the equity in funding challenges in the 1990s. The addition to the pot of educational innovations such as outcome based education has reduced the boiling point to a level where controversy over public K 12 educational funding has spread to almost all states.
Each state is addressing the controversy in a somewhat different way, although some state are more innovative than others. The proposed research will examine the approach to addressing the issue that is being followed in California. Additionally, the proposed research will compare and contrast the approach being followed in California with the approaches being followed in several other states, as a means of assessing the California effort. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
California State Legislative Analyst. Reform of Categorical Education Programs: Principles and Recommendations. Sacramento, California: State of California, 1993.
Categorical educational programs provide state level funding to both schools and local education agencies in California. This funding supports the acquisition of specific types of local services including transportation, subsidized meals, and ...