Court Decisions and School Finance Reform

Abstract

Lawsuits in approximately half of the states in the United States have challenged the constitutionality of state school finance provisions on equal protection or educational adequacy grounds. Although state supreme courts in nine states have upheld state provisions and not upheld them in six states, an analysis of cases decided by state supreme courts reveals no clear trend toward the acceptance or rejection of state provisions. The volume of case law appears to have served to heighten the awareness of inequity in school finance schemes on the part of members of legislatures and other state education policymakers.