A New National Report Highlights the Unfair Distribution
of School Aid in Many States

NEWARK, NJ, October 12, 2010 – Are school finance systems in the 50 states fair? Simply comparing overall funding levels won’t answer that question, according to a groundbreaking report released today.

“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 National Report Card rates the 50 states on the basis of four separate, but interrelated, “fairness indicators” – funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort, and public school coverage. Using a more thorough statistical analysis, the report provides the most in-depth analysis to date of state education finance systems and school funding fairness across the nation.

The results show that many states do not fairly allocate education funding to address the needs of their most disadvantaged students, and the schools serving high numbers of those students.

Among the Report Card’s key findings are:

• Six states do relatively well on all four indicators (NJ, CT, MA, VT, IA and WY);
• Four states are below average on all the indicators (IL, LA, MO and NC);
• Several states have high levels of education spending but allocate less funding to higher poverty districts (e.g., NY, ME, NH, MI);
• Most states need improvement in at least one area, and many do poorly on the indicators most influenced by policy decisions – effort and funding distribution.

“This report shows that many states fall short in providing fair education funding, although there are some bright spots,” said David G. Sciarra, Esq., Executive Director of the Education Law Center (ELC) in NJ, and a co-author of the National Report Card with Dr. Bruce Baker of Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and Dr. Danielle Farrie, ELC Research Director.

“Every state needs to do a better job, but certainly some more than others,” Mr. Sciarra added.

Dr. Baker noted that an important goal of the National Report Card is to open a serious conversation in all 50 states and in Washington, D.C. about increasing the fairness of state finance systems to ensure that they provide sufficient resources to low income students, particularly those in school districts with concentrated poverty.

“This report provides policymakers, legislators, and concerned citizens with the information they need to assess their state’s level of effort and advocate for fair school funding,” Dr. Baker said.

Mr. Sciarra stressed that giving all students in the U.S. access to a high-quality education is dependent upon sufficient and fair funding of our public schools.

“Current school improvement efforts, such as attracting and retaining great teachers, demand that our states provide sufficient funding, distributed to account for student need,” said Mr. Sciarra. “The National Report Card provides a much deeper understanding of the condition of school funding systems across the nation, and our sincere hope is that it will be used to push for fair and equitable school funding for all children, regardless of where they live. “