The courts and school finance reform

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judicial question (p. 290). School finance reform certainly has given credence to this observation. Most major school finance reform efforts across the states have been precipitated by or accompanied by litigation. Since 1970 all but eight states have experienced school finance litigation, and about half of the states have suits currently active. And where school funding systems have been judicially invalidated, states have often remained in litigation for well over a decade. This article reviews school finance litigation since the early 1970s. The concluding section offers some observations regarding trends and issues as well as the judicial role in school finance reform during the remainder of the 1990s.