States Continue to Deny Fair Funding to Nation's Public Schools

NEWARK, June 19, 2012 – The Second Edition of the National Report Card on public school funding, Is School Funding Fair?, shows that far too many states continue to deny public schools the essential resources they need to meet the needs of the nation’s 53 million students and to boost academic achievement. 

The report released today answers the question, “What is the most important element for ensuring that efforts to improve the nation’s schools are successful and sustainable?” Clearly, no school improvement strategy can be successful unless built on a foundation of sufficient funding that is fairly distributed to school districts to address issues associated with concentrated poverty, the report argues.

The National Report Card, first issued in 2010, is built upon the principle that predictable, stable and equitable state systems of school finance are the essential precondition for the delivery of a high-quality education and are of critical importance to the success of efforts to close persistent achievement gaps among the nation’s low income students, English language learners and students with disabilities.

The National Report Card rates the 50 states on the basis of four separate, but interrelated, “fairness indicators” – funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort, and public school coverage. Using a thorough statistical analysis, the Report provides the most in-depth analysis to date of state education finance systems and school funding fairness across the nation.

The Second Edition updates the National Report Card using the most recent data available, from 2006 through 2009. 

The most recent results show that many states continue to unfairly allocate education funding relative to the needs of their most disadvantaged students and schools serving high numbers of those students. Among the National Report Card’s key findings are:

• six states do relatively well on all four indicators (IA, KS, MA, NJ, NM and VT);
• three states are below average on all the indicators (FL, MO and NC);
• most states need improvement in at least one area, and many do poorly on the indicators most influenced by policy decisions – effort and funding distribution;
• during the years under consideration the effects of the economic recession were just beginning to be felt, with about half the states experiencing declines in per pupil spending between the two most recent years of available data.

“This Report shows that a significant number of states do not have school finance systems in place that will support and sustain the delivery of high quality education to all students,” said David G. Sciarra, Esq., Executive Director of the Education Law Center (ELC) and co-author of the National Report Card with Dr. Bruce Baker of Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and Dr. Danielle Farrie, ELC Research Director.  

“Most states continue to neglect growing student poverty by failing to direct resources to the students and schools most in need. In some states and regions, the shortfalls in school funding are reaching crisis levels,” Mr. Sciarra added.

Dr. Baker noted that an important goal of the National Report Card is to start a long overdue effort in all 50 states and in Washington, D.C., to increase the fairness of state finance systems as a necessary foundation for improving student achievement and closing gaps.

“Policymakers, legislators, educators and concerned citizens need to examine the National Report Card to determine whether their state’s funding system is designed to support and sustain improvements in public education,” Dr. Baker said.

“The success of any effort at the local, state and federal level to raise achievement, retain high quality teachers, and improve low performing schools absolutely hinges on a fair and equitable funding system,” said Dr. Farrie. “The National Report Card provides valuable information on the condition of school funding systems across the country, and that information must be used to inform public policy.