News In Brief

Voters in only seven of 132 Arkansas school districts have rejected a property-tax increase called for by state lawmakers earlier this year.

The districts with local tax rates still below the state's required level will be charged a 10 percent income-tax surcharge at year's end. The new local money will then be pooled and redistributed to districts under an equalization formula signed into law by Gov. Jim Guy Tucker earlier this year. The equalization payments will begin next school year. (See Education Week, April 12, 1995.)

State officials said that 179 Arkansas school districts already taxed residents at...