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Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses

Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's Public Schools

Hardcover

Published: 27th April 2009
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Spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public-school funding, the United States now spends more per student on K-12 education than almost any other country. Yet American students still achieve less than their foreign counterparts, their performance has been flat for decades, millions of them are failing, and poor and minority students remain far behind their more advantaged peers. In this book, Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth trace the history of reform efforts and conclude that the principal focus of both courts and legislatures on ever-increasing funding has done little to improve student achievement. Instead, Hanushek and Lindseth propose a new approach: a performance-based system that directly links funding to success in raising student achievement. This system would empower and motivate educators to make better, more cost-effective decisions about how to run their schools, ultimately leading to improved student performance. Hanushek and Lindseth have been important participants in the school funding debate for three decades. Here, they draw on their experience, as well as the best available research and data, to show why improving schools will require overhauling the way financing, incentives, and accountability work in public education.

It is enlightening, maddening, hopeful, frustrating and amazingly informative... The book provides a terrific summary of how the U.S. education system has changed since World War II. It makes a telling argument about how much our well-being depends on our schools. It eviscerates the policymaking that has ruled public education for the last half century. And it buries for all time the notion that getting the courts to fix our schools has any chance of success. -- Jay Mathews Washington Post Hanushek and Lindseth conclusively enlighten policy makers, professors, school administrators, legal and educational researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students of school administration by providing an exhaustive discussion of decades of school funding and the results for student achievement... The authors' experience and expertise in school funding, research, and data analysis and their ideas for the future of funding and accountability make this an absolute must read. Choice This important new book by economist Eric Hanushek and attorney Alfred Lindseth is the most cogent and comprehensive analysis of America's school-finance challenges that I have ever seen. -- Chester Finn, Jr. Education Gadfly

List of Illustrationsp. ix
List of Tablesp. xiii
Prefacep. xv
Introductionp. 1
Just How Important Is Education?p. 10
Education and Financial Achievementp. 11
Education and Povertyp. 15
Education and the Nation's Economic Well-Beingp. 16
Testing Student Skillsp. 20
Quality of U.S. Collegesp. 21
U.S. Education at a Crossroadsp. 23
Years of School Completedp. 23
Achievement Levels (or the Mastery of Cognitive Skills)p. 29
International Comparisonsp. 36
Achievement Gapsp. 38
The Political Responsesp. 44
Increased Spending and Resources for K-12 Educationp. 45
Increased Equity in Funding for K-12 Educationp. 57
The Standards and Accountability Movementp. 71
Increased School Choice Optionsp. 76
Teacher Certificationp. 80
Conclusionsp. 82
Court Interventions in School Financep. 83
Federal Desegregation Litigation and Milliken II Remediesp. 84
"Equity" Casesp. 88
"Adequacy" Casesp. 95
Practical Issues with Educational Adequacyp. 118
Defining an "Adequate" Educationp. 118
The Element of Causationp. 129
Problems Relating to Remedyp. 136
Problems Inherent in the Makeup and Processes of the Courtsp. 139
The Effectiveness of Judicial Remediesp. 145
Kentuckyp. 147
Wyomingp. 151
New Jerseyp. 157
Massachusettsp. 166
Science and School Finance Decision Makingp. 171
A Simple Decision Modelp. 172
How Much Is Enough?p. 173
How Should the Money Be Spent?p. 200
Using Science More Effectivelyp. 211
A Performance-Based Funding Systemp. 217
Guiding Principles: Back to Basicsp. 218
A Performance-Based Funding Systemp. 219
Big City Schoolsp. 258
Conclusionsp. 260
Making Performance-Based Funding a Realityp. 263
The Persistence of Illusory Spending Solutionsp. 263
Support for the Status Quo and Resistance to Changep. 268
Some Current Countervailing Forcesp. 275
Encouraging True Reform: Mutually Agreed Bargainsp. 279
Changing the Focus of the Courtsp. 281
Mobilizing for the Futurep. 287
Notesp. 291
Legel Citationsp. 353
Federal Court Cases (arranged in alphabetical order)p. 353
State Court Cases (arranged by state and, within states, chronologically)p. 354
Sources for Figures and Tablesp. 361
Referencesp. 363
Indexp. 395
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9780691130002
ISBN-10: 0691130000
Audience: Professional
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 432
Published: 27th April 2009
Dimensions (cm): 24.1 x 16.6  x 3.137
Weight (kg): 0.732