Author

Yousef Awwad

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Education, Ed.D.

Department

Education

First Advisor

Jacqueline Waggoner

LC Subjects

Education--Finance--Oregon; Government aid to education--Oregon; School taxes; School districts--Finance; Equity

Abstract

Taxpayers in Oregon provoked change in school finance policy by passing Measure 5, which cemented the ground for legislators to reform school finance. Measure 5 was aimed at restricting increases in local taxes while shifting most of the burden of schools’ funding to the State. The purpose of this quantitative study of a 20-year time period of school funding was to determine the impact and effectiveness of passing Measure 5 and school finance reforms on the equity of funding. All 197 school districts’ financial relevant data for 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 were collected and adjusted for the consolidation and splitting of districts, if necessary. Then data were analyzed to determine the impact on funding and equity using descriptive analysis and five equity measures; Coefficient of Variation, Federal Range Ratio, Gini Coefficient, McLoone Index, and Correlation Coefficient. Funding, in general, was increased in Oregon, but when adjusted for inflation, it declined. The findings of this study concluded that horizontal equity, which is non-differentiated per-pupil funding, improved from 1995 to 2015. However, evidence showed that vertical equity, which considers additional per-pupil funding needs, such as that for adequately serving special needs students or English Language Learners, worsened for the same period. The findings of this study were consistent with other studies (Driscoll & Salmon, 2008; Ko, 2006) regarding school funding in Missouri and Virginia.

Comments

Copyright for this work is retained by the author.

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