Document Type

Brief

Publication Date

9-1-2004

Keywords

School financial litigation; Educational adequacy

Series Title

Office for Education Policy

Series Number

Volume 01 Issue 07

Abstract

The adequacy approach to challenging school funding systems has proven the most successful of the waves of finance litigation, and the approach serves as the foundation for new or ongoing litigation and reform in many states today, including Arkansas. The standards reform movement has provided courts with a way to measure plaintiffs’ claims that school finance systems do not provide for an adequate education, and many courts have found school funding formulae unconstitutional. In this paper, we review the history of school finance litigation across the United States and focus specifically on cases related to educational adequacy. In the final section, we highlight the Arkansas Adequacy Study conducted by Lawrence O. Picus & Associates and consider the implications.

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