Fund Distribution Issues in School Finance: Priorities for the Next Round of Research

Abstract

During the 1980s, school finance research in general, and research on fund distribution and equity issues in particular, has been in a depressed state, with little progress being made on either the substantive or the methodological fronts. There is a backlog of old issues requiring attention, and certain new finance issues are emerging, mainly in connection with current education reform efforts. The priority tasks to be undertaken in the next round of research would seem to include (a) upgrading the methods used to address the traditional core topic in school finance research, equity in the distribution of funds among school districts; (b) extending the research on fund distribution issues to deal with hitherto-neglected dimensions of finance, including allocations of funds by type of resource, by level of education and type of pupil, and by curricular area or program; and (c) initiating new research into the relationships between education finance and efforts to improve the schools. The research on the finance-reform relationship should deal not only with the financial implications of particular reforms but also with the broader question of how school finance systems can be used to facilitate reforms and stimulate better performance.