Most states have enacted policies aimed at narrowing differences in spending across districts, increasing the resources available to districts that serve disadvantaged students, or both. Such school finance reforms have been promulgated by courts and legislatures in at least 27 states since the early 1990s (Lafortune, Rothstein, and Schanzenbach 2016). 2 Recent research indicates that these efforts led to increased test scores, educational attainment, and wages, especially among children from low-income families (Jackson, Johnson, and Persico 2016; Lafortune, Rothstein, and Schanzenbach 2016).

Currently, 35 states have a provision in their formula that provides additional funding to districts serving more low-income students. 3 In theory, these provisions should make school funding more progressive by spending more money on students from low-income families. But this depends on how successful are states at counteracting local funding, which tends to be regressive.