Chapter 2 History of School Finance

1
Chapter 2 History of School Finance
2

• Our founding fathers profoundly believed that
  their new democracys health depended on its
  peoples virtues as right, honorable, ethical
  individuals as well as knowledgeable citizens.

3
Founding Fathers BelievedPublic Education
Essential

• Rousseau noted in 1758 that public educationis
  one of the fundamental rules of popular or
  legitimate government.
• Jean Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse of Political
  Economy, 1758, translation and introduction by
  G.D.H. Cole in The Social Contract and
  Discourses, London J.M. Dent Sons, 1973), p.
  149.

• An educated general populace required for its
  democratic republics survival

4

• The first American school finance laws date back
  to the Massachusetts Act of 1642, which required
  parents and masters to attend to the educational
  duties of the colonys sons and servants.

5

• The General Court (the colonial legislature)
  empowered certain chosen men of each town to
  ascertain, from time to time, if the parents and
  masters were attending to their educational
  duties if the children were being trained in
  learning and labor and other employmentsprofitabl
  e to the Commonwealth .

6
Early U.S. Value in Education

• The child is to be educated, not to advance his
  personal interest, but because the state will
  suffer if he is not educated.

7
Profitable to the state

• Profitable meant that sons and male servants
  learned to read and understand religious
  principles while they received training in
  learning and labor. Women stayed home and
  learned household tasks and embroidery an
  obvious Title IX violation
• today.
• Ellwood Cubberley, The History of Education
  (Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1920), p. 34

8
Ye Olde Deluder Satan Laws

• Within five years of the first school finance
  law, however, it failed

• The law presumed that those who could read
  understand the Bible couldnt be tempted to
  follow Satans wiles.

9
Different Sized Settlements Had Varying
Requirements for Providing Public Schooling

• For 50 or more households -
• Appoint a reading and writing teacher
• Pay what deemed appropriate
• For settlements of 100 or more households
• Community taxed property owners to provide a
  grammar school

10
Towns not meeting this educational requirement
faced a financial penalty.
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Who Paid for Schools?

• Founding fathers believed that the wealthy should
  pay for educations public and religious
  functions.

• Local government taxed property because people in
  those days considered land to be a valid measure
  of wealth.

12
The Law of 1647 Represented a Distinct Step
Forward

• Not only did the law order towns to establish a
  school system elementary for all towns
  children, and secondary for youths in the larger
  towns but
• For the first time among English-speaking people,
  there was an assertion of the right of the State
  to require communities to establish and maintain
  schools. Failure to do so resulted in penalty.

13
The Laws of 1642 1647

• Represent the foundations upon which our
  American state public-school systems have been
  built.

• They also established the States right to tax
  for the provision of education.
•  

14
Massachusetts Precedent

• Establishing property taxes as the basis for
  funding public schools quickly caught on in other
  New England colonies. It remains a tradition to
  this day.

15
Compromise to Appease States Rights Advocates
Federalists

• Since the first 10 Amendments do not mention
  education, it became a state function.

16
Who is Responsible for Public Schools?

• This compromise, however, has far-reaching legal
  and financial effects today.

• States rights continues to be a discomforting
  national issue with keen influence on educational
  policy and practices.

17
Taxing Property Evolved Somewhat Differently in
Various Regions

• The middle and southern colonies, for example,
  subsidized very basic public schools (small
  facilities, limited curriculum, few students
  attending)

• Mostly churches parents financed further
  education.

18
Education Prosperity

• States must invest as heavily in education as
  their capacity allows if they want future
  economic prosperity for all its citizens.

19
Regional Evolution of Schools School Financing

• 1. Good school
• conditions
• 2. Mixed conditions
• 3. Pauper
• parochial schools
• 4. No action group

20
Schools Evolution Differed in Various Geographic
Regions

• New England became the first English-speaking
  area that required children learn how to read

• Although religious in inspiration and scope
  (students would be able to interpret the Bible
  for themselves and save their immortal souls),
  knowing how to read and comprehend also allowed
  individuals to think for themselves and act
  without offense or injury to others

21
Good School Conditions

• Citizens generally valued education and saw its
  value for the entire populace
• Provided public financial support to educate
  large number of students

• Maine
• Vermont
• New Hampshire
• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• New York
• Ohio

White Male
22
Mixed Conditions Schools

• People held conflicting ideas about what
  education should be and what it should provide
  for children.
• Showed wide variance in their willingness to
  fund local schools and in resulting education
  quality.

• Indiana
• Illinois

23
Pauper Parochial School

• Believed that high-quality schooling was for the
  elite
• Privileged sent their children to
  church-sponsored (parochial) schools
• Community leaders believed that the poor
  (paupers) deserved a minimal level of education

• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• Delaware
• Maryland
• Virginia
• Georgia
• South Carolina
• Louisiana

24
No Action Group

• Philosophically, these colonists believed
  that government should play little role in
  citizens or community affairs. Individuals held
  responsibility for their own actions and
  well-being, including providing for their
  childrens education.

• These regions took little or no actions
  establishing public education in their early
  statehood.
• Rhode Island, Kentucky, Tennessee, North
  Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama.

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Not All States Fit These Categories

• A number of states reflect an amalgam of people
  and ideas, not fitting one distinct pattern.

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The BEST Schooling Model

• The Good School Conditions
• model offered its eligible children
• the best learning
• opportunities.

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Federal History of School Funding

• Even though the Constitution made education a
  state responsibility, the federal government did
  not abandon involvement with public schools or
  leave their financing solely to the states

• On the contrary, the federal government heavily
  promoted and financed education from before the
  Constitution was ratified

28
Federal Financial Involvement in Education

• In 1778 Congress eagerly sought ways to
  generate revenue for the new country and to pay
  its war debts. One method involved selling claim
  to western territories.

29
Ordinance of 1785

• New Congressional townships in the western
  territories should be six miles square (or
  thirty-six square miles)
• The six miles square would be surveyed and
  divided into thirty-six lots, each of one square
  mile
• Towns could set aside the proceeds from lot
  number 16 to finance their public schools

30
Early School Financing

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787
• Authorized land grants to establish education
• Magnificent rhetoric but little guidance about
  how to carry
• it out

• Ordinance of 1787
• Conveyed approximately five million acres to land
  speculators

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The Ordinance Included

Religion, morality, and knowledge being
necessary to good government and the happiness of
mankind, schools and the means of education shall
be forever encouraged.
32
New States Required to Provide Education

• The Northwest Ordinance also established the
  requisite conditions for territories to become
  states and included a provision that each state
  have an education provision within its basic
  laws.

33
Clarifying the Sixteenth Sections Township
Intent

• Required monies from this sections sales be
  spent for public schools
• Started with Ohio

• Federal state roles clarified

34
4th Wave of Federal Policy

• States would receive a 5 portion of the sale
  of public lands states agreed that federal
  lands within states would be exempt from state
  taxes
• These revenues added to monies available to
  establish public schools

35
Andrew Jacksons Presidency

• There was a move to decentralize the federal
  government
• In 1836, the Surplus Revenue Deposit Act gave 28
  million of federal funds to the states
• Much of this windfall was spent for public
  schools

36
Another Major Federal Financing of U.S. Education

• In 1802, Congress enacted legislation
  establishing the U.S. Military Academy
• In 1845, established the Naval Academy
• In 1876, founded the Coast Guard Academy
• In 1936, founded The Merchant Marine Academy
• In 1954, started the U. S. Air Force Academy

37
1862, Congress Established the Morrill Act

• Authorized the states to use public land grants
  to establish and maintain agricultural and
  mechanical colleges
• Assured the countrys economic security by
  producing knowledgeable managers and planners for
  the nations growth
• In 1890, Congress passed the second Morrill Act
  providing funds to support instruction in the
  colleges that the first Morrill Act established

38
U.S. Department of Education

• Established in 1867
• This brought the function of education to a
  leadership position in the federal government

• Later, the Department was downgraded to the
  Office of Education. It continued as part of the
  Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
  until reestablished as a Department in 1980

39
The 1917 Smith-Hughes Act

• During World War I, the government faced large
  numbers of returning soldiers who needed specific
  workplace skills
• This Act gave states grants to support vocational
  education

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States Administer Federal Monies

• The national government directed the states role
  in administering this program according to
  federal standards and funds a model followed in
  future federal education grants.

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1918, Congress Passed the Vocational
Rehabilitation Act

• Providing funds to rehabilitate World War I
  veterans.

42
1919, Congressional Act to Provide for Further
Educational Facilities

• Authorized the federal government to sell
  surplus machine tools to schools for 15 percent
  of their original purchase price enabling
  schools
• to have the equipment
• needed to give students
• real world training.

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1920, Smith-Bankhead Act

• Authorized grants for the states to provide
  vocational rehabilitation programs.

44
1935, Agricultural Adjustment Act

• Congress and the Executive Branch desperately
  sought the quick-fix to save the crashing economy
  and relieve citizens economic despair.

• Set up the School Lunch Act providing food
  to schools so it could feed its students (because
  their families might not).

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1941, Amendment to the Lanham Act of 1940

• Providing federal aid for the construction,
  maintenance, and operation of schools located in
  federally impacted areas

• (where U.S. military families lived and worked
  on government-owned land and facilities and paid
  no state or local property taxes).

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1943, Vocational Rehabilitation Act

• Public Law 78-16
• Provided assistance to disabled veterans
  returning home from WW II

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1944, The G.I. Bill

• Servicemens Readjustment Act
• Provided education benefits to military returnees
  as they reentered civilian life

• By providing
• an attractive education alternative to
  employment, the GI Bill delayed many of the
  returning veterans from flooding the labor market
  and stalling economic recovery.

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G.I. Bill

• Offered a living stipend while veterans attended
  school, effectively transitioning the potential
  labor glut into a student cohort earning their
  living while learning new work knowledge and
  skills
• Enabled an educational investment in our
  countrys infrastructure by enhancing the
  workforces job skills

49
G.I. Bill, cont.

• Effectively supplied a massive education
  infusion to citizens, raising the education bar,
  and expanding learning horizons, career, and
  lifestyle opportunities for these returnees and
  for future generations.

50
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act

• Initially, schools and colleges felt a bit
  overwhelmed with the newfound demand for their
  services, placing a drain on resources.

• The Act allowed the national government to
  donate surplus federal property to educational
  institutions.

51
After WWII

• America believed herself to be the most
  powerful nation in military and economic strength.

52
Following Sputnik in 1957, however, the nation
faced a wrenching reality check.
53
National Defense Education Act

• The NDEA provided economic assistance to
  states and individual school systems to beef up
  science and math instruction, foreign languages,
  and other crucial subjects.

54
NDEA Also Supplied States with Resources
Including

• Statistical reporting
• Guidance counseling
• Testing
• Vocational technical programs
• Higher education student loans fellowships
• Foreign language study training
• New teaching media

55
Education of Mentally Retarded Children Act

• Train teachers to work successfully with
  disabled students.

• Prior to this time, only a few states
  distributed funds to localities to supplement
  educational programs for handicapped students.
  Most families with disabled children had to find
  their own help.

56
1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act

• Public Law 101-46
• Intended the federal government to pay 40 of the
  funding necessary for special education services
• States localities to pay the rest

• Today, the federal government pays 17 of special
  education costs instead of the 40 promised in
  national legislation

57
1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act

• Categorical Aid Programs Title I
• Provided supplemental school program grants for
  children of low-income families
• Intended to help economically disadvantaged
  students succeed (catch up with middle class and
  affluent peers) in the regular school program
• Provided additional educations resources to
  improve their basic and advanced skills to
  achieve grade-level proficiency
• Included extra or school-wide activities
  encouraging heavy parent involvement

58
Government Distributes These Funds in 2 Ways

• Basic Grants
• Flow through the State Education Agency (SEA) to
  localities based on a formula involving the
  school districts number of eligible students and
  the average state per-pupil expenditure.

• Concentration Grants
• Available only to restricted populations and
  represent a smaller percentage of the overall
  funding.
• Particularly useful to school systems with high
  percentages of disadvantaged students.

59
Title I

• Title I provided supplemental school program
  grants for children of low-income families
• This program intended to help economically
  disadvantaged students succeed in the regular
  school program by improving basic and advanced
  skills and achieving grade-level proficiency
• The program could include supplemental or
  school-wide activities encouraging heavy parent
  involvement

60
Title I, cont.

• Most Title I funds are basic grants which flow
  through the State Education Agency (SEA) to
  localities based on a formula involving the
  school districts number of eligible students and
  the average state per-pupil expenditure
• Concentration grants represent a smaller
  percentage of the overall funding within this
  Title

61
Title I, cont.

• Concentration grants are designed for localities
  with a high number of eligible students more
  than 6,500 students or more than 15 of all
  students eligible for Title I funding
• This is particularly useful to school systems
  with high percentages of disadvantaged students

62
Title I, cont.

• Annual amount of Congressional funds allocated
  for Title I varies from year to year, depending
  on political allocation decisions
• Requires that school divisions will not receive
  less than 85 of its previous years funding
  share

• Title I money had less buying power in the 1990s
  although expected to support learning
  interventions for more children

63
Title II

• Grant monies for school
• library resources, textbooks
• other instructional materials,
• including audio-visual equipment
• Called the Dwight D.
• Eisenhower Mathematics
• Science Education Act

64
Title II

• Provides presidential awards
• for outstanding teaching
• Funds for magnet schools
• Monies for talented and gifted programs
• Funds for womens educational equity
• Grants for drug abuse prevention,
• dropout prevention,
• bilingual education,
• other programs.

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Other Categorical Grants

• Title III
• Provided funds for supplementary education
  centers and services to public and private
  schools

66
Other Categorical Grants, cont.

• Title IV
• Allocated funds for regional educational research
  and training laboratories

67
Other Categorical Grants, cont.

• Title V
• Provided funds for strengthening state
  departments of education (otherwise known as
  State Education Agencies SEAs)

68
Funding Public Broadcasting

• In 1967, Congress passed the Public Broadcasting
  Act
• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was
  created and assumed a major role in routing
  federal monies to noncommercial radio and
  television stations

69
Funding Public Broadcasting

• The CPB began program production groups and
  started Educational Television (ETV) networks
• The CPB was responsible for awarding construction
  grants for educational radio and television
  facilities

• Many of todays new teachers were raised on
  programming given its start by the CPB. Those
  programs include Sesame Street, The Electric
  Company, and others.

70
Educating Disabled Students

• In 1968, the Handicapped Childrens Early
  Education Assistance Act, Public Law 90-576, was
  passed. This act provided for the authorization
  of preschool and early education programs for
  handicapped children

71
Educating Disabled Students, cont.

• Seven years later, in 1975, Public Law 94-142,
  the Education for All Handicapped Children Act
  provided that all handicapped children have a
  free, appropriate public education

72
Social Changes School Funding

• In 1970, many federal legislative changes came
  into being that had their beginning in social
  changes of the times
• The National Commission on School Finance was
  established under the Elementary and Secondary
  Education Assistance Programs, Extension, Public
  Law 91-230

73
Social Changes School Funding, cont.

• Office of Education Appropriation Act, Public Law
  91-380, provided emergency school assistance to
  desegregating local school districts and schools
• The Drug Abuse Education Act of 1970, Public Law
  91-527, provided funding for the development,
  demonstration, and evaluation of materials
  dealing with the many problems of drug abuse

74
Selected Other Federal Funding

• In 1986, the Handicapped Childrens Protection
  Act, Public Law 99-372, was passed
• This allowed parents of handicapped students to
  collect the attorney fees in cases brought under
  the Education of the Handicapped Act

75
Selected Other Federal Funding, cont.

• In 1993 the NAEP Assessment Authorization, Public
  Law 103-33, authorized the use of the National
  Assessment of Educational Progress, the Nations
  Report Card
• To be used for the purpose of making
  state-by-state comparisons of student
  performance. Country-by-country comparisons had
  already been made public

76
Selected Other Federal Funding, cont.

• In 1996, Congress felt pressure from states and
  localities regarding legislation that required
  states and localities to take certain actions
  that required money without the financial
  provisions in the acts to cover costs
• To that end, the Contract With America Unfunded
  Mandates, Public Law 104-4, was passed in an
  attempt to curb the practice of imposing
  unfounded federal mandates on states and
  localities

77
Federal Funding Today

• Today, the federal government funds approximately
  50 billion dollars for education purposes at the
  elementary and secondary levels

78
Federal Funding Today, cont.

• The federal government has invested more than
• 1 trillion in elementary secondary
  education from 1969 to 2001 an average of more
  than 27.7 billion per year.