ABSTRACT
For more than thirty years, the judiciary has been shaping the educational nance terrain and debate. Seizing upon arcane and often indeterminate state constitutional language, state supreme courts have invalidated the educational nance schemes of state legislatures and ordered those systems reformed in accordance with constitutional strictures. Through 2005, school nance lawsuits have been led in 45 of the 50 states, with challengers prevailing in 24 of 43 cases that resulted in a judicial decision (National Access Network, 2005a, 2005b). Although early litigation focused on the development of the right to equal per pupil funding, or at least a school nance scheme not dependent upon local property wealth, more recent litigation has sought to de ne qualitatively the substantive education to which children are constitutionally entitled.
