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Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children

Editor/s: 
Eric A. Hanushek
Published Date: 
2006
Publication: 
Stanford: Education Next Books
Pages: 
366 pages
Courting Failure examines the issues involved in school funding adequacy in light of recent court cases and shows that judicial actions regarding school finance—related to either equity or adequacy—have not had a beneficial effect on student performance. The expert contributors explain why low achievement is not inevitable for disadvantaged students and why school resources are not the dominant factor in whether students “beat the odds.” They show that cost studies on the price of an adequate education turn out to be more politics than science. And they tell how many districts often do not spend the funds they have in the manner need.
CONTENTS
  Introduction
Eric A. Hanushek
xiii
1. Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. New York: The March of Folly
Sol Stern
1
2. The Legal Backdrop to Adequacy
Alfred A. Lindseth
33
3. High-Poverty, High-Performance Schools, Districts, and States
Herbert J. Walberg
79
4. High-Spending, Low-Performing School Districts
Williamson M. Evers and Paul Clopto
103
5. Thorough and Efficient Private and Public Schools
Paul E. Peterson
195
6. How Can Anyone Say What’s Adequate If Nobody Knows How Money Is Spent Now?
Marguerite Roza and Paul T. Hill
235
7. Science Violated: Spending Projections and the “Costing Out” of an Adequate Education
Eric A. Hanushek
257
8. Adequacy beyond Dollars: The Productive Use of School Time
E. D. Hirsch Jr.
313
9. Funding for Performance
A Policy Statement of the Koret Task Force
329
  Index 357