Equal Educational Opportunity, Hollow Victories, and the Demise of School Finance Equity Theory: An Empirical Perspective and Alternative Explanation

Authors

Michael Heise, Cornell Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 1998

Keywords

Equal educational opportunity, Education reform, School finance litigation, Equity theory, Adequacy theory

Disciplines

Education Law

Abstract

Professor Heise reports findings from his on-going empirical study of judicial impact in the school finance context. The study employs interrupted time series analyses to explore the independent effect of successful school finance equity court decisions on two key outcome variables, centralization and total educational spending levels. The results cast some doubt about long-held assumptions regarding the efficacy of court decisions. The author argues that the results also uncover important clues that help explain the recent fundamental shift in school finance litigation theory from equity to adequacy.

Comments

This article predates the author's affiliation with Cornell Law School.

Recommended Citation

Heise, Michael, "Equal Educational Opportunity, Hollow Victories, and the Demise of School Finance Equity Theory: An Empirical Perspective and Alternative Explanation" (1998). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. 742.
https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/742

Publication Citation

Published in: Georgia Law Review, vol. 32, no. 2 (Winter 1998).