School Spending Equalization

Rationale

State courts across the United States have ruled that the method of funding public education, which relies primarily on local property tax revenues and often leads to pending disparities between rich and poor school districts, violates fundamental constitutional guarantees of equal opportunity to education. Many states have acted to address these inequities. This measure is an indicator of how equal school spending is across all of a state's school districts.

About Measure

The ratio of the amount spent on pupils below the median in a state to the amount needed to be spent to achieve "equity” (as of 1997).

Source

The McLoone Index. Education Week. XX (17), pp.104-105. (January 2001) Bethesda, MD: Editorial Projects in Education Inc.