Straw into Gold, Resources into Results: Spinning Out the Implications of the 'New' School Finance. PACE Working Paper Series.

This policy analysis presents the "new-school" finance, one that, in contrast to most discussions about funding that have concentrated on spending patterns only, asks how resources are used within schools and classrooms, and whether they are used in ways that can enhance educational outcomes. The analysis, directed toward policymakers and educators in California, reviews a variety of literatures from different areas of education to clarify the implications of this new-school perspective for policymakers, administrators, and researchers. The first section details the political and organizational features of schools that lead to resources being spent with no potential effects on outcome. The second section reviews literature that reports on efforts to move beyond discussions of spending to more detailed analyses of resource use, including educational production functions, school-effectiveness research, and identifying effective teaching conditions. The next three sections detail the implications of the research for researchers, educators, administrators, and policymakers. The analysis concludes that without the kind of political changes necessary for the new-school finance to emerge, spending for education will keep escalating without much improvement to show for it. (Contains 2 tables, 29 endnotes, and 121 references.) (WFA)