State_Aids

State Aids Educational expenditures constitute the largest portion of most state and local government budgets. Historically, the responsibility for funding public education has been on the shoulders of state and local governments as they provide over 91% of all revenue (Brimley & Garfield, 2002). School funding in the United States is achieved through the combined efforts of all three levels of government: local school districts, each of the states, and the federal government. It is principally concerned with raising, distributing, allocating, and using revenues for the purpose of educating children (Odden & Picus, 1992). The major task of policy makers has been to create school funding formulas that will promote fiscal equalization, incorporate intergovernmental grants, and uphold school finance values. The main sources of funds for our schools are local property taxes and state revenues. Put in the simplest of terms, the ability of a local government to pay for the education of its children depends mostly on property values and the number of pupils in the district (Brimley & Garfield, 2002). Although each state relies on the same basic principles and types of funding, each states funding system is individual. Some of these differences are based on the states history per, funding, flat, school, grant, districts, pupil, states, state, local, grants, schools, public, program, government, garfield, each, differences, brimley, 2002, total, student, pupils, property, financing, create, been, within, weights, values, type, structures, structure, special, shift