ABSTRACT
The level and the nature of funding for elementary and secondary education in the early years of this new millennium will be the result of economic, social, and political forces that are largely beyond the control of educators. 1 As Kirst and Garms (1980) noted in the first yearbook of the American Education Finance Association, “The public school system is a dependent variable of larger social and economic forces.” The forces that will shape school funding in the first decade of the 21st century have, if anything, become more complex than they were at the beginning of the 1980s. The size and age distribution of the population will continue to be an important determinant of educational funding, as will the nation’s economic health. In addition, social and political forces are likely to play a more prominent role in determining the level of funding and the way in which funding is allocated to school districts and schools in the next ten years.
