Equitable Funding

Learn more about efforts to manage school funding to ensure fair allocations of resources
Image of a bullseye, darts, and money.
Laura Baker/Education Week with DigitalVision Vectors
Budget & Finance ‘Money Matters. Now What?’: How Districts Get More Funding for Poor Students
Targeting more funding to students who are most in need has a measurable effect on their academic performance, according to new research.
Mark Lieberman, October 14, 2024
7 min read
A hand holds a scale weighing integration against resource allocation in observation of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Noelle Rx for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Opinion 70 Years After 'Brown,' Schools Are Still Separate and Unequal
The legal strategy to prioritize school integration has had some unforeseen consequences in the decades since.
Sharif El-Mekki, May 20, 2024
4 min read
Conceptual illustration of tiny people is planning the personal budget, accounting, analysis.
Muhamad Chabibalwi/iStock/Getty
Education Funding How States Are Rethinking Where School Funding Should Go
There's constant debate over the best way to allocate state money to schools. Here are some ways states are reworking their school funding.
Mark Lieberman, February 23, 2024
7 min read
A blue maze with a money bag at the end of the maze.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding A Court Ordered Billions for Education. Why Schools Might Not Get It Now
The North Carolina Supreme Court is considering arguments for overturning a statewide order for more school funding.
Mark Lieberman, February 22, 2024
6 min read
Conceptual illustration of business people, a roll of paper, and the people using computers, a magnifying glass and telescope with the year 2023 as a shadow below them.
Liz Yap/Education Week and iStock/ Getty.
Budget & Finance 2023 in School Finance: Legal Fights, School Choice Debates, Persistent Inequities
Highlights of the year in school finance coverage include school funding lawsuits, private school choice legislation, and the looming financial storms brewing.
Mark Lieberman, December 22, 2023
6 min read
Tight crop of a dollar bill puzzle missing one piece
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Education Funding Schools Lost Ground on Funding in Recent Years. The Recovery Could Be Slow
School funding took a hit a few years ago. It might be some time before it recovers.
Mark Lieberman, December 8, 2023
5 min read
In this Aug. 13, 2014, file photo, a student prepares to leave the Enterprise Attendance Center school southeast of Brookhaven Miss. The federal government has decided to delay changing the way it determines funding for rural education after a bipartisan group of lawmakers said the move would hurt hundreds of schools.
A student prepares to leave the Enterprise Attendance Center school southeast of Brookhaven, Miss., on Aug. 13, 2014.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
School & District Management The State of Rural Schools, in Charts: Funding, Graduation Rates, Performance, and More
Rural schools receive less funding on average from states, but they still deal with the mental health and academic crises facing all schools.
Libby Stanford, November 20, 2023
5 min read
Students head to the cafeteria for lunch at Sandy Valley School in Sandy Valley, Nev., on March 30, 2022. The school is one of only a handful in the mostly urban Clark County School District to meet just four days a week.
Students head to the cafeteria for lunch at Sandy Valley School in Sandy Valley, Nev., on March 30, 2022.
Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP
School & District Management Report Outlines the Distinct Challenges Facing Rural Schools
They enroll more students than the 100 largest districts combined, but rural schools have higher operating costs and lower teacher pay.
Libby Stanford, November 16, 2023
6 min read
budget school funding
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Budget & Finance Pa. Hasn't Fixed Its School Funding System, and Educators Are Frustrated
After Pennsylvania's school funding formula was deemed unconstitutional, state legislators failed to come up with a solution this session.
Lydia McFarlane & Mark Lieberman, August 17, 2023
9 min read
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DigitalVision Vectors
Budget & Finance Q&A How Fair School Funding Became the Unlikely Topic for a Student Podcast
Three students hosted a weekly podcast as their district and others fought against a funding formula they said shortchanged poorer schools.
Mark Lieberman, March 23, 2023
5 min read
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen at near sunset in Washington, on Oct. 18, 2018.
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen at near sunset in Washington, on Oct. 18, 2018.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo
Law & Courts After 50 Years, a U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Educational Equity Is Still Debated
In a school finance case from Texas, the justices held that the wealth of districts was not subject to extra constitutional scrutiny.
Mark Walsh, March 20, 2023
12 min read
Large white hand holding a weighing scale with a bag of money on one side and books with floating letters on the other side showing a balance of knowledge and money
iStock/Getty
Education Funding 6 Lawsuits That Could Shake Up How States Pay for Schools
Far removed from annual budgets, these lawsuits hold the potential to force states to direct more funds to their schools.
Mark Lieberman, January 27, 2023
6 min read
David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, an advocacy group for children in low-income cities, looks at paperwork during a hearing in a school funding case before the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton, Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, an advocacy group for children in low-income cities, looks at paperwork during a hearing in a school funding case before the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton, Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
John O'Boyle/AP/Pool
Education Funding Education Equity Expert: 'We've Gotta Give Up the Notion of Local Control'
David Sciarra, stepping down as head of the Education Law Center, says states have been let off the hook in the push for education equity.
Mark Lieberman, January 23, 2023
8 min read
A student visits a sensory room at Williams Elementary School, on Nov. 3, 2021, in Topeka, Kan.
A student visits a sensory room at Williams Elementary School in Topeka, Kan.
Charlie Riedel/AP
Special Education Special Education Funding Is 'Fundamentally Broken,' Researcher Says
Federal funding for special education services has stayed largely flat over the past two decades.
Lauraine Langreo, December 9, 2022
3 min read