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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Education Research Report: Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card

Education Research Report: Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card

Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card

National report card on school funding fairness finds Illinois one of four states ranking poorly on all measures

"Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card," a national study conducted by Rutgers University researchers and the Education Law Center in Newark, N.J., ranks states and the District of Columbia on how fairly they fund public schools based on four interrelated "fairness indicators"—funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort and public school coverage.

“Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card” posits that fairness depends not only on a sufficient level of funding for all students, but also the provision of additional resources to districts where there are more students with greater needs.

The results show that many states do not fairly allocate education funding to address the needs of their most