1. Some states are concentrating on spending money more "intelligently" (eg. North Carolina), not on the equitable distribution among systems. What are some of their ideas?
http://www.edweek.org/context/topics/issuespage.cfm?id=22
2. Is funding a factor in the "achievement gap" for minority and low income students?
Click Article
3. Rocky Run Middle School in Virginia
tried a different approach to fund raising in their school. What
is your opinion of it? How would its effectiveness vary from school
to school?
4. a. What is NC's average expenditure per pupil? Which section of the country has the highest expenditures?
http://nces.ed.gov/edfin/graphs/topic.asp?INDEX=1
4. b. What share of the total NC per pupil expenditure (State
Revenue) does the State contribute? - see Graph # 6 in the link above. Click
on link in the top right corner of the page to see all the graphs.
5. One of the main contributors to the inequalities in school funding is the revenue raised through the property tax at the local level. States that contribute a higher % of school funding, and thus have lower dependence on the local level, might be more likely to provide additional funding to high poverty school districts - see Table 5, Page 11. Does this appear to be the case?
http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/EE004C0A-D7B8-40A6-8A03-1F26B8228502/0/funding2003.pdf
6.
Look at the statistics for the
southeastern states. Excluding DC, what correlations do you see between finances
(amount spent per pupil, teacher salary etc) and student achievement?
Apart from differences in the percentage of students taking the test, what other
factors which might affect student achievement?
http://www.asbj.com/evs/01/seast.pdf
7. Recent court cases in both North Carolina and New York have tied new school standards to school funding. Briefly summarize two problems the author states with this practice. What is your opinion?