You can enhance the following activities from the Instructor's Resource Manual by incorporating the resources available on the World Wide Web.

School District Budgets

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests one class activity and one assignment for students:

• Have students generate a list of items that might be included in a typical school district's budget for a given fiscal year. Obtain a copy of your local school district's budget and compare it to the list developed by the students.
• Assign students to obtain information from several area school districts about total income and expenditures for the districts. Have them examine the budget lines and determine percentages for the various items. Project what might happen in times of budget retrenchment or budget surplus. Students can present their ideas to the whole class and invite classmates' responses regarding the pros and cons of projections.

The School District Locator from the National Center for Educational Statistics might help with both these assignments:

School District Locator

Education Finance Statistics Center
The Public School District Finance Peer Search at this part of the National Center for Educational Statistics may help you compare districts' budgets.

Association of School Business Officers
The web site of this organization may help you locate school business officials in order to learn more about local budgeting.

Disparities in Local Resources

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Provide examples from districts in your state to reveal low and high levels of revenues generated from property taxes. Discuss the implications of these differences by focusing on two particular districts, one with low and one with high amounts of revenue generated from property taxes. Discuss the implications for teacher salaries, books, supplies, instructional materials, and the overall quality of education in the two districts.

Some resources that may help you prepare for this discussion include:

School District Locator
The National Center for Educational Statistics provides access to its database of contact information for school districts all over the country.

State Departments of Education
ERIC provides a handy map-based way to link to all of the state departments of education.

Education Finance Statistics Center
The Public School District Finance Peer Search at this part of the National Center for Educational Statistics may help you compare districts' wealth.

Fiscal Problems of Schools The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests you make the following assignments to your students:

• Contact the your state's revenue officer to obtain information about property tax rates in communities and counties throughout the state. Analyze differences in rates and revenues generated and consider implications for school district funding and the quality of education. Gather information from the same office about the source and amount of state funds.
• Invite a local school official to discuss the district's infrastructure and buildings. What kinds of infrastructure problems does the district have and what plans have officials developed for addressing the problems? What are the financial implications of their infrastructure needs and plans?

Students might find helpful background information on state revenues and education at:
A Snapshot of the States' Fiscal Health
This article from 2001 gives brief summaries of the budgetary conditions in all 50 states at that time, and their effects on public education.

U.S. Census Bureau
The Census Bureau makes a variety of financial information about states and their populations available at its web site.

For help with the second activity, students might visit:
School Construction
Education Week's hot topic summary of school construction issues contains a helpful, concise list of links to reports and organizations that deal with construction.

School Facilities
AskERIC has a well-chosen collection of links to helpful information about school facilities and construction.

Judicial School Finance Reform
The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:

• Have students debate the pros and cons of the Serrano, Rodriquez, and Rose decisions. Have them debate the pros and cons of the notion that community control leads to discrepancies in school expenditures at the local school district level. How much discrepancy should be permitted? What should the states do, if anything, to offset the wealth discrepancy that might exist among school districts?
• In small groups prepare reports on Rose v. Council for Better Education (KY), Edgewood Independent School District v. Kirby (TX), and Abbot v. Burke (NJ). What were the issues in each of these cases? How were the cases decided, and what were the consequences of the decisions? With what aspects of the cases do you agree or disagree?

Trends and Issues in School Finance
This report from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management discusses judicial trends as well as a variety of other school finance issues.

Financing America's Public Schools
This Issue Brief from the National Governor's Association highlights the school finance issues that have emerged from court cases during the past several years. In addition, it describes six types of funding formulas that states use to finance public education. The Issue Brief also examines school finance system overhauls in Kentucky and Michigan.

School Finance Litigation
This thorough report, commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics, summarizes judicial decisions on school finance at state and federal levels.

Block/Categorical Grants

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Poll students on their views about whether they support the block grant program or categorical grants. Why? Why not? Reasons should be listed. Examine articles about federal education policy and have students ascertain which types of grants the federal Department of Education is currently utilizing.

To help students learn more about the current directions in federal educational policy, you may wish to direct them to President Bush's 2001 education plan:

No Child Left Behind
The executive summary and several other parts of the plan describe the increased flexibility the federal government wishes to extend to states by moving away from categorical grants.