Introduction the most part, the burden of raising revenues to fund public schools in the US is shared by state governments and local school districts. The federal government additionally provides funds for Kl education, though its share has typically ranged from 5 to 10 percent of total expenditures and has been targeted for at-risk students. The proportion of revenues contributed by each of the three levels of government varies from district to district, as well as from state to state. Moreover, because of the disparities that this scheme generates in the amount of money available for the provi-sion of educational services, controversy exists about how much equality should exist in school finance and what level of govern-ment is responsible for ensuring that this result is achieved. Proponents of greater school finance equity have challenged the legality of the existing system at several levels. In the landmark case of Rodriguez v. San Antonio Independent School District (1973), the United States Supreme Court ruled that access to free public education is not a fundamental right under the equal protec-tion clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitu-tion. 2 This decision virtually halted further challenges of school finance inequity at the federal level, rendering irrelevant the issue of disparity in s tate-to-state levels of elementary and secondary

1. This article is based on work supported by the American Education Finance Association (AEFA) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 1997 New Scholars Program. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the AEFA or NCES.