How Fair is Your State’s Funding?
I always learn something new when I read a report comparing state funding systems. And this recent report by Bruce Baker and coauthors is a solid one. Unfortunately, the authors had bad timing, and the data that they were using for the report was updated while the report was in production. You can find a quick update using 2008 data (here). With the exception of Delaware there was little change from the prior year’s data. Also if you are a fan of graphs and charts, take a look at the methodology paper (you can skip the math and just look at the charts, they are interesting).
The study provides four specific measures – overall funding levels (adjusted for cost factors), funding effort (measured by percent of GDP spent on education, equity of distribution, and coverage (percent on public school). I found the equity of distribution the most unique from other sources. Basically this measures whether the state’s finance system provides more resources to districts serving a greater portion of student’s living in poverty. If it does the state is considered a progressive state, if the districts serving wealthier students receive