Study Reveals Funding Gaps Across States

Most states have failed to erase wide funding disparities between rich and poor school districts, one of the most comprehensive school finance studies ever conducted says.

The study by the U.S. General Accounting Office, released last week, ranks the states on their efforts to equalize school spending. It found that high-income districts outspent low-income systems by an average of 24 percent more per student in the 1991-92 school year. That is the most recent year for which comparable data are available across states.

The gaps occurred even though poor districts in 35 states taxed themselves more heavily...