School Finance And Education Equity

This inspiring account of bipartisan political success delivers an expert breakdown of how and why Kansas--a politically conservative state--was able to craft a stable, balanced, and equitable system of funding for its public schools. Beyond a chronicle of one state's achievements, School Finance and Education Equity provides invaluable policy guidance and lays out a blueprint that other states can use to strengthen their own public education systems. Bruce D. Baker's account highlights how persistence can overcome opposition, continuity can aid reform, and incremental gains can lead to big change. In an era of national ideological polarization and political and economic volatility, the lessons from Kansas are especially illuminating. "Just as it takes a village to raise a child, Baker shows us that it takes a village--or better yet, a cast of characters and institutions from across a state--to build a decent public education system. Baker helps us see the intersecting factors that have allowed Kansas to survive--where others have fallen victim to--the assault on public education. The lesson is that facts, constitutions, institutions, and of course people all matter--and at different times in different amounts." --Derek W. Black, professor of law, Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law, University of South Carolina "How could Kansas, a deep red state, be the locus for some of the country's most important school finance litigations, involving dramatic confrontations between the state supreme court and the legislature that have repeatedly upheld students' rights to adequate funding? Bruce Baker unlocks this mystery in this engrossing book that describes the state's unique constitutional structure, and the politics and the personalities--often women in key positions--that brought this to fruition." --Michael A. Rebell, professor and executive director, Center on Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University Bruce D. Baker is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.