ELC seeks to elevate the urgent need for school funding fairness as a state and national imperative for improving student outcomes and school performance. Crucial to achieving that goal is reframing the school funding debate from a focus on dollars to essential education resources and improved outcomes, while illuminating the capacity and need for states to increase investment in public schools and improve their finance systems. 

To achieve our goal, ELC is developing more in-depth, state specific data and analyses often missing in debates over education finance and school funding reformThese reports will investigate the fairness of current school funding systems and the allocation of resources, especially as it relates to students in poverty.  

This project is funded by the W.K.Kellogg Foundation. 

Focus States

View Interactive Tools for All State Reports

Evidence for Advocates

Investing Additional Resources in Schools Serving Low-Income Students

While the benefit of investing additional resources in schools serving low-income students is well-established in research, it is often ignored or not well understood by policymakers. This brief provides the research evidence advocates need when confronted with a fundamental question in the education policy debate: Why should states invest additional resources in low-income students?

Tracking State Aid Cuts in the Pandemic

Advocates across the country are mobilizing efforts to maintain adequate state support for public education during and after the pandemic. To assist those advocacy campaigns, ELC will track and analyze state decisions on school aid cuts and the distribution of emergency federal funds, with a focus on the impact on higher poverty school districts.

Money Matters: Evidence Supporting Great Investment in PK-12 Public Education

New research finds that increased spending on public education improves student achievement, thereby debunking the notion that “money doesn’t matter” and making the case for greater investment in preschool-12 public education. This brief summarizes research presented by school finance experts at a webinar cohosted by ELC, ETS, and the Learning Policy Institute.