A Study On The School Finance Policies That Promote The Equalization Of Elementary Education In The US

Since the1960s, school finance policies in the US have experienced severalchanges. The litigation case, Serrano in California in1971,had become an importantturning point for educational finance policies. Other states in the US followedCalifornia to suit for education equity after Serrano. From then on, the US started anequity-based reform. Overall, this period of reform have reduced education financeinequities, the state government assumed the proportion of expenditure on educationhas increased year by year. It has also been a substantial increase in student funding.The proportion of expenditure on education that the state government afford hasincreased year by year. Mean funding per student also increased apparently. Promotethe equalization of elementary was the main problem that the reforms focused on.Throughout the1980s, education finance reform in the United States have stagnateduntil the outbreak of the1989Rose litigation case in Kentucky, education financereform became the focus of the public once again, but this time, the litigation focusedon education adequacy. Since then the aim of education finance reform shift equity toadequacy. The education finance polices that based on adequacy achieved a higherlevel of fairness, and promoted the equalization of education.The first part of the paper described the development of education financepolices from the early20thto nowadays. During these days, all levels of government,the courts, the schools,etc.have made a great effort to promote the equalization ofeducation in the US.The second part of this paper claimed the concept of the principle of equity andadequacy which are the two core principles of education polices, emphasize theconcept of adequacy. Analyze the differences and commonplaces between equityand adequacy objectively.At the third part, I introduced how to measure adequacy.At the fourth part of this paper, I took Arkansas as an example, claimed how thegovernment implement the adequacy polices to improve the outcome of students, including how to use the measurement standards of adequacy, and the improvement ofthe students’ academic achievement that the polices have made.The fifth part summarized some enlightenments that the education financepolices of the US to our country. The education finance polices of the US that promotethe equalization of education may give our education finance system some advices.