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Article
Financing School Choice: How program design impacts issues regarding legality and equity
Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy (2018)
  • James Shuls
Abstract
Since the first modern school choice laws were passed in the early 1990s, access to educational options has grown tremendously. Today, more than 6,900 charter schools exist in the 44 states and the District of Columbia which have charter school laws. These schools enroll more than 3.1 million children. During the same time period, prevalence of private school choice programs has grown dramatically with nearly 50 different programs in existence. Many have sought to examine the impacts of school choice programs on students. Indeed, there is a vigorous debate in the literature on this matter. This paper explores this issue from a different angle school finance. The design of school choice programs, specifically how they are funded, has important implications for the legality of a program and with issues related to equity. These matters are incredibly important as states continually grapple with questions related to adequacy and equity in school finance. As school choice programs continue to expand, they offer an opportunity not just to expand educational options, as proponents suggest, but to improve how we fund education for all students. This paper explores the issues related to school finance and school choice litigation, then offers a school choice model that might be used to increase equity in finance and in educational options. 
Disciplines
Publication Date
Summer 2018
Citation Information
James Shuls. "Financing School Choice: How program design impacts issues regarding legality and equity" Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy Vol. 27 Iss. 3 (2018) p. 500 - 514
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/james-shuls/29/