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Toward Increased Centralization in Public School Finance

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Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations

Part of the book series: Recent Economic Thought Series ((RETH,volume 56))

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Abstract

Traditionally, public elementary and secondary education has been highly decentralized in the United States. There are more than 16,000 school districts, each of which has significant responsibility for raising education funds and deciding how those funds are to be spent; as late as the 1920s, local governments provided well over 80 percent of public school revenues. Although state governments have shared in the cost of providing education, historically their major role has been to monitor curriculum, evaluation and standards. Moreover, the federal role has been small. Federal spending is low and even a modest effort to involve the federal government in standards through Goals 2000 met an early demise.

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Evans, W.N., Murray, S.E., Schwab, R.M. (1997). Toward Increased Centralization in Public School Finance. In: Fisher, R.C. (eds) Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 56. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5352-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5352-2_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6250-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5352-2

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