Inequalities in Educational Financing

Abstract

There are sharp inequalities in school financing. The disparity is even more profound given the inverse relationship between per-pupil expenditures and actual educational need. Education, moreover, competes with other major entitlement programs for increasingly scarcer funding resources. Equality in educational financing is a worthy goal but it does not confront the basic cause of educational inequality. Fear of school integration perpetuates the existence of a multiplicity of school districts. This substantially increases the burden to fund education and ultimately costs society dearly.