Using Cobb and Elder's theory of agenda setting in the public policy arena, this article assesses the politics and impacts of school finance during the 1970s and 1980s, an intense period of education policy reformer Cobb and Elder identify four "triggering mechanisms " that catapult issues to the formal policy agenda. unanticipated events, technological changes, ecological changes, and biases in the distribution of resources. As a result, four categories of policy initiators respond: exploiters, circumstantial reactors, do-gooders, and re-adjusters. The article shows how the various triggering mechanisms and policy initiators functioned on public school finance policy over the past two decades and assesses impacts on the new school finance structures that were created. The results show that the array of policy initiators has continually expanded during the past 20 years, from educators to governors, legislators, the courts, and the business community. The results also show a wide range of new school finance policies, the complexity of which is partially caused by the various triggering mechanisms and motivations of the policy initiators.
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