EQUITY IN SPENDING PATTERNS IN NEW JERSEY SCHOOL DISTRICTS UNDER THREE DIFFERENT FUNDING STATUTES (SCHOOL FINANCE, CHAPTER 212, BATEMAN ACT)

• Main Author: FINGER, PHYLLIS THOMAS
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1985
• Subjects: Education finance; School finance
• ISBN: 9798205137805

In Robinson v. Cahill the New Jersey Supreme Court declared the existing system for funding elementary and secondary education to be unconstitutional and ordered the State Legislature to devise a new plan. The new system, The Public School Education Act of 1975 (Chapter 212), was enacted with the goal of increasing equity for both students and taxpayers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate equity in spending patterns in New Jersey school districts under three different funding statutes, with emphasis on the effect of the implementation of Chapter 212. The school years selected for the study were 1968-69, which was operating under the State School Aid Law of 1954 or the Dumont foundation program; 1973-74, which was under the Bateman Law guaranteed valuation program; and 1978-79, under the new act. This study focused on several equity principles as expressed by the courts: fiscal neutrality, as measured by the relationship between expenditures per pupil and district property wealth; equal educational opportunity, as measured by intradistrict disparities in per pupil expenditures; and other variations in spending related to general socio-economic background, wealth or location of districts, with special concern for the problems of urban districts. The research indicated that while the relationship between district expenditures and property wealth declined under the Bateman Act, Chapter 212 did not bring about an improvement in fiscal neutrality. Under Chapter 212, the gap in intradistrict adjusted per pupil expenditures did not become more narrow at the extreme ranges of the 95th-5th percentiles. However, the disparities did become more narrow at the 90th-10th and 80th-20th percentile levels. Also, expenditures varied more directly with socio-economic background, wealth, and location under Chapter 212 than under the Bateman Act. While under the Bateman Act there was an increase in school spending in the urban districts, under Chapter 212 the adjusted expenditures in the large city districts declined. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)