By MERRILL REDEMER
Associate Professor of Administration,
Sangamon State University, he has
worked as staff consultant to Illinois
General Assembly; evaluation specialist,
Springfield Public Schools; director
of research division. New Mexico
Department of Education; school
superintendent: and teacher. He received
the Ed.D. from Oklahoma State University.
State added new "resource equalizer' option to already complicated system of aid to schools
State aid to public schools can be determined in several ways, including the new 'resource equalizer' option. A larger question is whether the State should pick up all local education costs
THE U.S. Constitution makes no mention of schools, but the constitutions of all states assert a commitment to education thereby warranting a very direct role for states in supervising as well as financing the public schools.
Illinois, like all other states, has a plan for allocating State funds to support local public schools. The reason for this is very simple — local school districts in many parts of the State do not have an adequate tax base to meet the rising expectations and costs of education.
At one time in many parts of the United States small school houses every few miles seemed adequate. All children walked or rode horses to school. One teacher taught all subjects to all students. The few who wished further education were transferred to the city, which generally had a high school. There were no recognizable programs in special education, no hot lunch, transportation, vocational education — not even school superintendents. To finance this school program, usually grades one through eight, the local school board was granted the power to levy a tax on all property within the school district. In less wealthy districts the revenue from this tax was often insufficient to operate the schools for the nine or ten months we now accept as conventional. When this revenue was exhausted, the schools simply shut down until the following year. With the exception of meager funds accrued through state-owned school land (for all states entering the Union after the Northwest Ordinance of 1785), schools were totally funded by local property taxes.
As the societal context of schools became more complex, these complexities were reflected in the schools themselves. Teachers were expected — later even required — to be college trained. High school graduation became the common goal for the average person. Various programs were developed to meet special individual and societal needs, and state legislatures and departments of education imposed minimum requirements for curriculum, length of school year and other matters. As demands on locally financed schools grew, it became apparent that the state would have to assist with financial support to maintain a respectable and efficient system.
Strayer-Haig formula
In the late 1920's Illinois followed a
precedent established earlier in the
decade in New York. This precedent
allocated State funds to school districts
in an inverse relationship to the
districts' taxable wealth. The concept was
simple: districts with little valuable
property to tax needed more State
money to operate their schools. The
application of this concept became
known as the Strayer-Haig formula
after the Columbia University
professors who developed it. Almost all
states now use some variant of this
formula to allocate state funds to local
public schools. This is generally known
as equalization aid.
Specific purpose grants Illinois Issues/February 1975/47
But Illinois legislators often saw
needs that were not being met by the
general grants-in-aid to poorer districts.
This led to grants for a specific purpose
or category. Such categorical aid
resulted in the separate allocations for
handicapped students, gifted students,
vocational education programs, drivers'
education, lunch and breakfast
programs, bilingual programs,
transportation subsidies, adult
education, parental education, and building
programs. The net effect of the separate
allocations is to have many well
developed but sometimes overlapping