Lecture 16 POLS 207 Outline of Last Lecture More Thoughts on NCLB and School Funding I No Child Left Behind A Is it even possible a Coleman Report 1966 II Federal Courts role in education A 14th Amendment litigation B Religious practices in the public school system Outline of Current Lecture Education Funding National v State Local I Property wealth inequality and unequal school funding A SCOTUS and 14th Amendment B State courts and state constitutions Judicial Federalism II Fiscal and policy capacity of the states A One source of modern centralization B Public sector outpacing economic growth C National debt v balanced state budgets Current Lecture Federal courts for the most part haven t touched the issue of school financing Locally raised mostly property taxes are a major source of government raised public education funds Chapter 16 545 48 on school financing public education expenditures from Federal taxes 8 8 State taxes 47 2 Local taxes 44 Caution Nationwide locally raised taxes are no longer the largest source of government funds for K 12 public education TX 50 local 30 state on ALL funding 20 mix of federal aid and private aid like parents TX 62 local 38 state of State local tax funding Halter chapter 11 241 44 Inequalities in property wealth among districts Note that NO court Federal or State has ever held that inequalities of property wealth violate Constitutional provisions Locally assessed property taxes result in unequal school funding richer districts v poorer districts o See Halter table 11 4 p 242 o Does this inequality violate the equal protection clause of the 14 th Amendment SCOTUS said no see San Antonio I S D v Rodriguez 1973 They closed the door to further arguments against public education funding inequality based on the 14th Amendment See also D M chapter 16 547 See Halter chapter 11 242 44 for Texas case and solution Edgewood v Kirby 1989 Supporters of more equal funding turned to their state constitutions for help some state courts ruled that these education finance inequalities DO violate their state constitutions But how could they rule this way if SCOTUS had already ruled differently Judicial federalism See also D M 9 293 295 involves the right of STATE courts to rule differently than federal courts including US Supreme Court on an equivalent issue Must be done in a certain way Fiscal and Policy Capacity of the States as pertains to government expenditures The capacity to design manage and finance quality public programs One of the sources of modern centralization See also Key Terms for Chapter 16 The Politics of Education and Halter chapter 11 241 46 Chapter 14 The Politics of Taxation and Finance Also Chapter 3 84 87 91 on federal aid and Chapter 17 562 65 on poverty Halter Chapter 11 241 46 Halter Chapter 10 200 218 Trends Measuring all government expenditures as a percent of GDP See chapter 14 470 GDP gross domestic product annual dollar value of all goods and services produced in U S Over the last 60 years the public sector the government has grown faster than the Economy 1920s 2 3 of public expenditures were state local 1 3 was national government Changing intergovernmental composition Postscript Much of national government funding comes from borrowing money an advantage states don t have most states must balance budget See D M chapters 8 285 86 and 14 482 87 But note Rankings p 483 for states per capita debt Note also differences between general obligation state pledges to pay back the value of the bond and revenue bonds More risky proceeds from the bonds will be used to pay back the bond over time Program composition of expenditures National government OASDHI Social Security and Medicare 34 Other mandatory 21 Defense 18 Other discretionary 20 Interest 7 OASDHI Medicaid and defense represent 68 of 2011 Federal budget Ezra Klein Federal government An insurance company with a large army