7 Urban politics and state school finance in the 1980s¹

1. I wish to thank the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation and the Working Group on State Educational Policy, Brown University for their support for this study

This chapter examines the effects of the major policy and political trends in lower education during the 1980s. Specifically, it assesses the programmatic and fiscal effects of the Reagan administration's fiscal federalism, the excellence agenda and the emerging state activism on urban school districts. The focus is on California as an illustrative case study, as the state represents an inchoate national trend toward fiscal centralization. The chapter argues that centralization has created a new politics of school finance. Not only do schools compete for funding with higher education, health, welfare, criminal justice and transportation, but students also compete with teachers over categorical funding. The chapter concludes that policies of categorical funding have changed dramatically. While symbolically they are rooted in equity, in reality they represent a new political spoils system.

1. I wish to thank the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation and the Working Group on State Educational Policy, Brown University for their support for this study

Notes

1. I wish to thank the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation and the Working Group on State Educational Policy, Brown University for their support for this study