Public School Finance

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Public School Finance
From the NC Superintendent of Schools report 1869
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2004
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Federal responsibility for education (US
Constitution)

• Q67. "Is there anything in the U.S. Constitution
  that guarantees its citizens an education? My
  uncle is being forced to pay for summer school
  for his children by the NYC Board of Education.
  Unless he pays, my cousins are going to have to
  repeat the grade. I see this as an attack on the
  lower classes, who will obviously have a problem
  paying for their 'public school' education."
• A. There is no constitutional right to an
  education. A state constitution may include such
  a right, but I doubt that being required to pay
  for education would be considered a violation of
  that right. The problem with something like your
  uncle's situation is that, to be blunt, if a
  child does not apply himself enough during the
  school year to pass from one grade to the next,
  is it the school's responsibility to pay for that
  child to have remedial classes to move along? I
  suspect not after all, if your uncle does not
  wish to pay, the kids could just repeat the grade
  for free.
• http//www.usconstitution.net/constfaq_a4.html

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Every state system is a balance of federal,
state, and local funds.
What would you predict would be the relationship
between this mix of funding in a given state and
the differences between school district resources
within that state? What about within a given
school district?
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North Carolina 2004 What the Federal Dollars go
towards (the 8.6 of overall education funds in
NC)
These are the dollars that are tied to NCLB Only
about 675M
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The 12th fastest growing state 18,000 more
children per year for the last 5 years 25
counties have 82 of the growth (10 counties have
lost population)
North Carolina!
Asheville
In the past decade the Hispanic population has
increased by 612
Important Acronym ADM is average daily
membership (attendance) in a school
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One of the works of THE WOMAN'S ASSOCIATION FOR
THE BETTERMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSES IN NORTH
CAROLINA.
The object of this association shall be to unite
the women citizens of North Carolina, for the
purpose of awakening their interest in the
improvement of public school houses in our state.
It will undertake to have local associations in
every county. Through these it will endeavor to
interest a volunteer association in the
neighborhood of every public school house, which
will help to beautify the premises by planting
trees and flowers, placing pictures on the walls,
or otherwise improving the school environment of
our future citizens to furnish entertaining and
instructive amusements and to encourage the
establishment of local public libraries.
Pleasant Hill School, Henderson County NC old
and new (1902).
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docsouth.unc.edu/nc/butler/butler.html
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NC Statistics giving a sense of the business of
public school
92,890 students are in private schools 51,571
are home schooled these represent 11 of public
school enrollment.
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Its worth remembering that most NC middle-aged
adults attended racially segregated public
schools.
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Public Education Matters in the NC economy!

• Largest expense in the state budget (40.8)
• A business of 8.5B
• Largest employer in most counties
• Provides transportation that covers 155,464,615
  yearly miles
• Provides recreation to 145,000 students
• Provides counseling (4,045 counselors and
  psychologists)
• Provides food 150,089,760 yearly lunches.

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NC Public School Forum 2004
Additional funds for education that NC would have
if it spent at the national average.
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North Carolina 2004
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NC Funding Process The responsibilities of the
state

• The State sets teacher pay schedules
• The state pays whatever is required to hire a
  (locally chosen) teacher or principal based on
  position allotments. The state will pay whether
  the teacher is brand new -- 25,250, or a 30-year
  veteran with NBPTS -- 58,440.
• The state will pay a fixed amount to each
  district/per child for textbooks (51.45),
  teacher assistants (15,719), and central office
  administration do you see why consolidation has
  been so popular?

• CATEGORICAL ALLOTMENTS are for specific needs and
  groups transportation, disabled children,
  at-risk children (Special Education 2612 per
  child)
• There is a State curriculum
• There is State testing
• There are State assistance teams that take over
  failing schools

Allotments are based on ADM
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This funding is the result of multiple court
cases and legislative initiatives
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North Carolinas constitution

• North Carolina constitution
• http//statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NC/STGOVT/arti
  cle_vii-xiv.HTMIX
• ARTICLE IX
• EDUCATION
• Section 1. Education encouraged.
• Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary
  to good government and the happiness of mankind,
  schools, libraries, and the means of education
  shall forever be encouraged.
• Sec. 2. Uniform system of schools.
• (1) General and uniform system term. The General
  Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise
  for a general and uniform system of free public
  schools, which shall be maintained at least nine
  months in every year, and wherein equal
  opportunities shall be provided for all students.
  
• (2) Local responsibility. The General Assembly
  may assign to units of local government such
  responsibility for the financial support of the
  free public schools as it may deem appropriate.
  The governing boards of units of local government
  with financial responsibility for public
  education may use local revenues to add to or
  supplement any public school or post-secondary
  school program.

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From Courthouses to Schoolhouses Emerging
Judicial Theories of Adequacy and Equity.
Verstegen, D.A., Whitney, T. Educational Policy ,
Vol. 11, No. 3, September 1997.

• Three waves of litigation
• http//www.edsource.org/edu_fin_res_verstegen.cfm

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• 19601972 The first wave of school finance
  litigation. In federal court,claimants alleged
  that disparate state school finance systems
  violated the equal protection clause of the U.S.
  Constitution.
• U.S. Supreme Court Rodriguez decision effectively
  halted further challenges in federal courts.
• (Savage Inequalities chapter 6)

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Second wave of litigation

• 197288 State courts. Litigants claim that the
  school finance system violated the states
  education and/or its equal protection clause.
• California, New Jersey, Wyoming, Connecticut,
  West Virginia.
• The courts found in favor of the plaintiffs in
  all five. Adequacy and equity standards for (each
  states) public education system adopted in each.

Note Kozol pps. 207-209 foundation program
financing
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Third Wave

• 1989present State courts moved into new legal
  territory during the third wave, as demonstrated
  by rulings in Kentucky, Texas, Montana, and New
  Jersey.
• Some courts redefine the constitutionally
  required level of education a state must provide
  from a minimum education to a quality education.
  (North Carolinas Leandro case)
• Courts determined constitutional compliance by
  looking at both input and outcome indicators.
• Interpretation of the education article of their
  states constitutions opened the door to broad
  school finance reform across the country.
• Courts focus on adequacy in addition to equity,
  while calling for major systemic reform.
  Sufficiency of funding and its distribution are
  at issue.

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WE REALLY DIDN'T REALIZE IT WOULD BE A REALLY
BIG DEAL'

• JACK BETTSStaff Writer
• RALEIGH - 11 YEARS LATER, PLAINTIFF ROBB LEANDRO
  RECALLS START OF FAMOUS SCHOOLS CASE
• Published June 26, 2005
• Robb Leandro remembers the day it all began. His
  mother had picked him up after baseball practice
  at Hoke County High School in the spring of 1994.
  She had some news.
• My mom told me the superintendent of schools had
  called, he says. There might be a case filed
  and they were looking for plaintiffs.
• They found one in 15-year old Robb Leandro, a
  bright student in one of the state's least
  wealthy counties and one of its poorest school
  districts.
• They were a group of the state's savviest
  lawyers. And they were looking for evidence that
  the state's school system didn't deliver an
  adequate education to all its students.
• They found plenty in five low-wealth school
  districts - Hoke, Halifax, Robeson, Cumberland
  and Vance county schools. Hoke schools'
  superintendent Bill Harris suggested they talk to
  the Leandro family of Raeford.
• And since the day in May 1994 they filed a
  lawsuit challenging the way North Carolina
  educates its public school students, Robb
  Leandro's name has been in the news regularly.
• But no one knew then that this lawsuit could
  possibly take so long.

• May 1994 School boards from Hoke, Cumberland,
  Robeson, Halifax and Vance counties sue the state
  claiming that children in their systems do not
  receive the same educational opportunities as
  students in wealthier districts. The suit takes
  the name of the lead plaintiff, Robb Leandro, a
  student at Hoke

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• April 1996 The Court of Appeals dismisses the
  lawsuit, saying the state constitution does not
  guarantee equity or quality in public schools.
• July 1997 The state Supreme Court overturns the
  Court of Appeals and restores the case. The
  Supreme Court rules that every child has a
  constitutional right to a "sound, basic
  education."
• September 1999 The trial begins with Superior
  Court with Judge Howard Manning Jr. presiding.

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• After 11 years of litigation and two major N.C.
  Supreme Court decisions - one upholding the right
  of every student to a sound basic education, and
  the other defining what the state would have to
  provide - the N.C. General Assembly is struggling
  to determine how much money it should spend on
  low-wealth districts as well as on urban
  districts that enroll large numbers of low-income
  students.
• Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning, who
  expects to oversee the Leandro case the rest of
  his days on the bench, is keeping the heat on
  state officials.
• He is pushing them to respond adequately to the
  courts' requirement to provide qualified teachers
  in every classroom, a competent principal in
  every school and sufficient resources for every
  class - but he has resisted telling them how much.

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• Oct. 12, 2000 Manning rules that the state
  system for school funding is adequate and
  constitutional but leaves open the question of
  funding to poorer districts.
• Oct. 26, 2000 Manning rules that the state must
  provide pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds
  who are at risk for academic failure.
• March 2001 Manning orders the state to come up
  with a plan to better serve students at risk for
  academic failure. He gives the state a year to
  come up with a plan to better address the
  problem.
• April 2002 Manning rules that the responsibility
  of providing equal education to all students lies
  with the state. He orders the state to "remedy
  the Constitutional deficiency for those children
  who are not being provided the basic educational
  services" of competent, well-trained teachers,
  good principals and sufficient funding.

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• At the Superior Court level, all parties agreed
  that End-of-Grade (EOG) and End-of-Course (EOC)
  testing was an appropriate measure to determine
  whether the Leandro standards were being met. The
  State argued, however, that Level II (below grade
  level) was adequate, while the individual school
  districts, or local education agencies (LEAs),
  argued that Level III (grade level) should be
  used as the baseline standard. The Superior Court
  found the LEAs argument more compelling.
  Statewide EOC and EOG clearly illustrated that
  Hoke County scores, along with many others, have
  consistently been terrible. This trend
  continued through the 2000-2001 school year.
  Consequently, Leandro established that the
  education being provided to these students was in
  violation of their right to a sound, basic
  education.

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• In its verdict, the Superior Court found first
  that the provision of a sound, basic education is
  incumbent on the state because the North
  Carolina Constitution clearly provides that it is
  the obligation of the State to provide each and
  every child with the equal opportunity to obtain
  a sound basic education. That obligation includes
  not only funding, but providing assistance to the
  LEAs who are not carrying out their duties in
  regard to the sound basic education.4
• The Court based this conclusion on the fact that
  the LEAs are merely constituent branches of the
  State, created for the States convenience in
  administering its constitutional obligation of a
  sound, basic education to every child.
  Consequently, when an LEA fails to meet that
  standard, responsibility devolves to the State.
  Upon these findings, the Superior Court, in
  accordance with Leandro, Ordered the State, not
  the LEAs, to fix the deficiencies that exist with
  at-risk children.5

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• Each school must have a good principal that is an
  effective, energetic, motivated leader. An
  integral facet of being a "good principal" is
  engaging in regular, high-quality professional
  development.
• Each classroom must have a good teacher who is
  competent, certified, effective and energetic.
  Competent teachers are fully equipped to assess
  their students accurately and then modify the
  curriculum to meet each child's special needs.
  The State must ensure that all students are
  taught by teachers working within their field of
  expertise. Further, staff development and
  on-going training for teachers is essential and
  necessary.

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• No single educational method or program is
  necessary. There are many efficient ways to
  teach, provided that they all cover the Standard
  Course of Study in a focused manner.
• A safe and orderly environment in the School is
  essential in order for students to learn.
• High expectations of teachers and students are
  essential.6

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