achieving a general, suitable and efficient education in arkansas lawrence o. picus usc rossier...
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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 [email protected]