Power, Constraint, and Policy Change: Courts and Education Finance Reform (SUNY series in American Constitutionalism)

Examines how state courts change public policy through an analysis of their influence on state education finance reform. Power, Constraint, and Policy Change analyzes state court influence on state education finance reform. Beginning in the early 1970s litigants began filing suits in state courts to change state education funding in order to prevent disparities in education resources between wealthy and poor communities. These cases represent a fundamental policy debate in American society, pitting the importance of education against the cost and method of funding it. Through education finance, the authors explore how and why courts often end up determining and resolving policy funding debates. Education funding has involved both the federal constitution and state constitutions, as well as legislation and court-mandated remedies, which, ultimately, determine who and how we pay for this critical American value. Contents 8 List of Figures and Tables 10 Acknowledgments 12 Chapter 1 Introduction 14 The Fight over Funding 14 A Brief History of Public Education 17 The Funding Disparity and the Turn to Court-Ordered Solutions 20 Why Courts? A Theory of Policy Change through State Courts 29 Waves of Finance Reform 34 Plan of the Book 41 Chapter 2: Why Courts? 43 Chapter 3: Citation Patterns in Education Finance Policy 43 Chapter 4: When Citations Are Not Enough 44 Chapter 5: Policy Diffusion through Courts 44 Chapter 6: Conclusion—How State Courts Move and Change Policy 44 Chapter 2 Why Courts? 46 Introduction: Politics, Law, and Education Finance Reform 46 The Political Environment 48 Hypotheses 54 Data 56 Models, Methodology, and Results 59 Conclusion: Predicting the Institutional Agent of Court-Ordered Finance Reform 67 Chapter 3 Citation Patterns in Education Finance Policy 70 Introduction 70 Vertical Citations and the Power of Precedent 71 Horizontal Citations and Persuasiveness 72 Hypotheses: State Supreme Courts Shaping Education Finance Reform 75 Data and Methods 77 Results 80 Chapter 4 When Citations Are Not Enough 90 Introduction 90 What Else Matters 91 Testing the Limits of Citations: Data and Methods 93 Results 93 Discussion and Conclusion 102 Chapter 5 Policy Diffusion through Courts 104 Introduction: Do as I Do, Not as I Say 104 Policy Diffusion in the States 105 Diffusion and Emulation of Court-Ordered Education Finance Reform 107 Political, Institutional, and Legal Factors Influencing Emulation 110 Data, Method, and Model 115 Dependent Variables 116 Legal Independent Variables 117 Political Independent Variables 117 Socioeconomic Independent Variables 118 Model 119 Results 121 Discussion 128 Chapter 6 Conclusion—How State Courts Move and Change Policy 130 Law, Politics, and Policy Formation 130 Empirical Findings 134 Chapter 2: Why Courts? 134 Chapter 3: Citation Patterns in Education Finance Policy 134 Chapter 4: When Citations Are Not Enough 135 Chapter 5: Policy Diffusion through Courts 135 What We Know 136 What We Want to Know 138 Notes 140 References 146 Index 160 __Examines how state courts change public policy through an analysis of their influence on state education finance reform.____Power, Constraint, and Policy Change__