Many Schools Are Still Inadequate: Now what?

Author/s
Eric A. Hanushek
Alfred A. Lindseth
Michael A. Rebell
Published Date
Fall 2009
Publication
Education Next
Details
9(4)
Pages
pp. 49-56
Questions of educational adequacy and school spending have long been a point of contention in school reform.Amid the recent economic turmoil and gaping state budget shortfalls, questions of whether court-ordered funding remedies have delivered—and why they have or have not—have taken on particular import. This forum offers two sharply different takes on our experiences to date, and what lessons they offer going forward. Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth are the authors of Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America’s Public Schools (Princeton University Press, 2009), in which they propose a system of performance-based funding focused on improving student achievement.Michael Rebell is executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is the author of Courts and Kids:Pursuing Educational Equity through the State Courts (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), in which he proposes a new functional separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches to promote education reform and student achievement.