Achieving A General, Suitable and Efficient Education In Arkansas

Lawrence O. PicusUSC Rossier

School of Education

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“The school funding system now in place in the State of Arkansas is inequitable and inadequate…”

Chancellor Collins Kilgore

In Lakeview v. Huckabee

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What’s This About? Concepts of equity and

adequacy What school finance theory

says about both How equity and adequacy can

be achieved

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System Requirements Substantial Uniformity Substantial equality of financial

resources Substantial equal educational

opportunity for all students

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Three Requirements

Embody legitimate standards for student performance

Provide a method for accountability to ensure the standards are met

Provide and allocate sufficient resources to deliver the standards

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Establishing an Equity Framework

Who is the Group? What is the Object? What is the Principle? What Statistic(s) do you use to

measure the degree of equity?

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Equity: Equal Amounts of What?

Horizontal Equity Vertical Equity Fiscal Neutrality

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Arkansas School Funding Foundation program

•Base level revenue

•Additional base funding Categorical grants for vertical

equity Limited assistance for capital

expenditures

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Adequacy: How Much Money Do We Need?

School finance adequacy requires providing enough fiscal resources to insure that all students can perform at high levels

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Costing Out Adequacy Defining adequacy Implementation issues Measuring costs and

expenditures Concerns and other issues

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Four Approaches to Defining Adequacy

Cost functions Expenditures in

districts/schools that meet performance benchmarks

Professional judgment Cost of effective school-wide

strategies

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Implementation

How proscriptive should the model be? •Who controls spending decisions?

Simple, transparent and easily understood •Establish a base “foundation” level

•Adjust for: •Student characteristics

•District characteristics

•Price differences

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Measuring Cost and Expenditures

Understanding the difference between a cost and an expenditure

Choosing which to use •Wyoming Costs

•Oregon Expenditures Combinations of the two

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Concerns and Other Issues

Look at the total picture•Individual components of the

funding model may not tell the whole story

Details are important, but don’t forget the major assumptions in the model

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Conclusions

Lakeview sets the stage for significant Reform

Need to tie finance reform to student performance

Define adequacy Collect and use better data What is the cost?

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How to Contact Me

Lawrence O. PicusProfessor, USC Rossier School of

EducationEDPA WPH 702GUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA 90089-0031213 740-2175lpicus@usc.edu