Achieving Educational Adequacy through School Finance Reform - This report from the Center for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) argues that imposing statewide student performance standards without adequate financial resources will result in school districts with above average costs not having the funds to educate their students to meet the new standards. The report includes a statistical approach for measuring the costs of public education and ways to integrate those costs into school aid formulas. It also reviews alternative approaches to the measurement of costs. (Andrew Reschovsky and Jennifer Imazeki, CPRE, October 2000)...

Passing the Test: The National Interest in Good Schools for All - In the chapter entitled Educational Inequality through Education: Millennial Resolutions (page 81), W. Norton Grubb discusses the conditions necessary for successful economic reform for schools. Grubb argues that every generation tends to recreate economic inequality, and progress depends on (1) the way the issue is framed to the public, (2) development of new areas for federal policy and (3) policies that simultaneously reshape both demand and supply for educated labor . One suggestion is to avoid tax expenditures because tax credits and deductions disproportionately benefit middle- and upper-income taxpayers. (W. Norton Grubb, Center for National Policy, March 2000)...

Making Money Matter - A comprehensive review of the theory and practice of financing public schools by federal, state and local governments in the United States, this report argues that money can and must be made to matter more than in the past if the nation is to reach its ambitious goal of improving achievement for all students. The book provides a thorough understanding of how facilities financing is an integral part of a comprehensive education financing system. (Helen F. Ladd and Janet S. Hansen, eds., National Academy Press, 1999)...