LEGAL AND POLITICAL APPROACHES TO EQUITY ISSUES IN SCHOOL FUNDING MODELS

Abstract

Public education in America faces issues of inadequate and inequitable funding across school districts and this has implications for student achievement. There have been reform attempts through legislative and judicial means over the years at both the federal and state levels. the states of Arizona, Hawaii, New York, and North Carolina, analyzing public school funding models and histories reveals several important lessons. It appears that a combination of legal and political approaches may be an effective solution for states to address inadequacies and inequities in public school funding. For political approaches, state legislatures could work on equalizing funding and addressing local tax capacity, as well as changing the funding model structure to include higher state-level investments in public education and have over half of funding come from the state. For judicial approaches, challenging funding systems under the education or equal protection clauses of state constitutions has been successful and could offer a way to compel or influence state legislatures to make reforms. These approaches can come with challenges such as a lack of political will to reform public school funding or weak state constitutional clauses to make claims under, but they still offer useful means for addressing funding reform.