The Prospects for Financing Elementary/Secondary Education in the States. Congressionally Mandated Study of School Finance. A Final Report to Congress from the Secretary of Education. Volume 1.

The first of 3 final reports from the Department of Education's School Finance Project, this volume presents in 4 chapters, 7 appendixes, 8 maps, and 32 tables the results of analyses of factors affecting elementary and secondary educational finance. Chapter 1 introduces the report and outlines how it is organized. Chapter 2 offers an overview of major economic, demographic and fiscal trends for the nation as a whole, while chapter 3 describes the analytical framework used in the study and notes the study's limitations. Chapter 4 presents the study's results. The chapter first discusses state-by-state demographic trends and projections (used as indicators of educational demand), including school-age population, public and private enrollment, ethnic and income composition, and migration; it then focuses on state and local factors (used as indicators of educational resources supply), including expenditures, dependence on federal aid, and fiscal effort and capacity. The chapter concludes with an assessment of state financial prospects, dividing the states into three groups, those with favorable, average, or unfavorable funding prospects. The appendixes provide methodological discussions and additional data and projections for demographic and fiscal factors. (RW)