The Financing of Urban Public Schools [microform] : A Report on Selected School Systems. Supplement to Final Report, Volume 1 of the Congressionally Mandated Study of School Finance

This report on school finance trends in urban areas is based on an analysis of the fiscal and demographic features of 44 major U.S. cities, as these have changed between 1970 and 1980. During this period, urban school systems experienced a median enrollment decline of 25 percent (2.5 times the national average), as a result of declining populations in large cities and changing national demographic trends that reduced the ratio of children to the total population. At the same time, an increased concentration of minority and poor students, coupled with a proportional increase in private school enrollments, has resulted in a greater prevalence of needy children in urban public schools. The dramatic decline in enrollment has led to increased per pupil expenditure in nearly all the sample cities, but the growth in state and federal aid to education has reduced these schools' reliance on local revenue. Because of higher birth rates among the increasingly dominant minority groups, a reversal of the declining enrollments is likely to occur during the next decade. Demographic and fiscal features of individual cities were analyzed in an attempt to identify funding prospects. Thirteen were identified as having good prospects (i.e., expenditures per pupil more than 10 percent above national average); 18 had average prospects (within 10 percent of national average, plus or minus); and 13 had poor prospects (less than 90 percent of national average). (TE)