The Support of Education: Federal, State, and Local Funding

Abstract

CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM of school support were treated in Chapters I, II, and III of this issue. The treatment here will follow the problem into greater detail. Outstanding in the finance literature of 1935, 1936, and 1937 is an increased interest in formulating and executing a more adequate and equitable plan of financial support of public education (405, 408, 410, 412, 415, 420, 429, 437, 445, 452, 453, 461, 473). Research in this area recently has progressed generally in two directions: (a) toward the study of increased federal appropriations-the significance such funds may have on educational processes, and proper bases for the allocation and distribution of any such monies; and (b) toward increasing and improving individual state support, and the better distribution of state funds. More and more during recent years local communities suffering from financial distress have turned to their respective states for help. Individual states, and particularly those states in which economic conditions would not allow necessary help to distressed localities, have in turn looked to the federal government for financial assistance necessary to meet the situation (408, 412, 415, 420, 425, 431, 444, 445, 446, 447, 452, 461, 463, 478). The recent marked attention given to the possibilities of further federal support of public education has probably come about in part because of the financial underwriting by the national government of many essential services which local and state units of government have largely been unable to assume (401, 421, 438, 455).