Scully, T: An Analysis of School Funding at the Student Leve

Brown v Board removed the notion of 'separate butequal' that had defined who could attend which school by a child's race. In California, Serrano v Priest determined that anareas wealth could not be used as a discriminating factor whenallocating dollars for a child's education, thus equalizing the amount of theState contribution to each child.The Prop. 13 tax revolt removed about 80% of thelocal control from School Districts and School Boards.Where the above actions addressed access and equity,no one had addressed what the cost should be to provide an adequate education. Those clamoring for adequacy are beingjoined by others calling for efficiency in spending. This work gives a detailed look at how each dollarallocated per child is spent. You will see a startling spendingrange between children. This piece does not deal with academic outcomes. Atthe start of this study, the author was looking at production functionmodels and cost-benefit analysis as means of determining ifstudent outcomes where affected by spending. In each case multiiplevariables clouded the effort to apply a business model to an educationsetting. No doubt it can be done.