Protests by teachers and others helped drive substantial school funding increases over the last year in Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, four states that had cut school “formula” funding — the main state revenue source for schools — the most over the last decade. Still, formula funding remains well below 2008 levels in these states, as we explain in a...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Report: States Can Use Tax Policy to Advance Racial Equity
November 15, 2018
States and localities can do more to help undo the harmful legacies of racism and the damage of continuing racial bias and discrimination, a major new Center report finds. If state policymakers can design their budget and tax policies to better address these harms and...
North Carolina Tax Cap Threatens Funding for Public Services
October 18, 2018
North Carolina voters will decide in November whether to tighten the cap on the state’s income tax rate, which would make it harder to fund schools, health care, and other public services while overwhelmingly benefiting the state’s wealthiest families.
The ballot measure would amend the state constitution to reduce the cap on...
State, Local Tax Systems Worsening Inequality
October 17, 2018
State and local tax systems can be a powerful tool for boosting economic opportunity, creating broadly shared prosperity, and building equitable state economies. But in nearly every state, they’re reinforcing and often worsening inequality, as the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows in a new report.
The new study of the state and local...
K-12 Funding Cuts Contributing to Inadequate Teacher Pay
September 11, 2018
Teachers in every state are paid less on average than other similarly educated workers, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the University of California, Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics (CWED), and the gap is growing. This erosion reflects state policy choices, not weak state...
Many Schools Still Facing Funding Challenges as New Year Starts
August 23, 2018
School funding has been in the news a lot this year, as teachers in several states went on strike this winter and spring to protest low pay and inadequate state support. Nationally, combined state and local funding for K-12 schools has finally recovered from deep cuts made during the Great Recession, but some states still haven’t restored funding. With children now returning to school around...
K-12 Funding Cuts Include Capital Spending to Build and Renovate Schools
June 25, 2018
Teacher strikes in Oklahoma, Arizona, and other states highlighted low and declining teacher pay — due in part to large state funding cuts in some states since the Great Recession. Many states have also imposed large school capital spending cuts since then, which has meant less money to...
Arizona Proposal Would Finance School Funding Boost, Make Tax Code Less Regressive
May 30, 2018
Arizona teachers ended their strike after Governor Doug Ducey signed a budget giving them a 20 percent salary increase over three years. But the budget doesn’t include the new revenue required to finance the planned spending, relying instead on optimistic predictions of economic growth, continued cuts in the Medicaid rolls, and one-time funding shifts. Meanwhile, the new revenue sources the...
New Census Data Show Persistent State School Funding Cuts
May 22, 2018
Update, July 26: We’ve corrected the number of states where state and local funding exceeded pre-recession levels in 2016.
A significant share of states are providing much less school funding than they were a decade ago, according to new data from the...
North Carolina’s Deep Tax Cuts Impeding Adequate School Funding
May 10, 2018
North Carolina teachers plan to hold a “March for Students and Rally for Respect" on May 16 – the first day of the new legislative session — to protest low pay and inadequate school funding. As in Oklahoma and Arizona, excessive tax cuts have made it harder for North...
