One Pager on School Funding and Taxation

Posted by on October 13, 2006

[posted from Public Education Network newsblast]

EDUCATION SPENDING & CHANGING REVENUE SOURCES

Although school districts are the primary supplier of education services, they do not always have independent authority to set spending levels or raise revenues. The ability to set expenditure levels depends in part on the taxing authority of school districts. School districts in 36 states are designated independent, meaning they may generate their own revenues, usually by setting property tax rates. In the other states, some school districts are dependent on a city, town, or county to raise revenues. For example, most school districts in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are city or town dependent, while districts in Maryland and North Carolina are primarily dependent on counties. Other states have a mix of both dependent and independent school districts, with dependent school districts generally found in larger cities. Most dependent school districts are on the East Coast. Districts have increasingly been
dependent on state aid for funding. This one-page tax analyses, written by Sonya Hoo, Sheila Murray, and Kim Rueben, looks at changes in school financing by type of school district.

http://www.urban.org/publications/1000942.html