The Thomas B. Fordham Institute report Fund the Child: Bringing Equity, Autonomy and Portability to Ohio School Finance, is the latest in a series of reports promoting the implementation of decentralized governance of public schooling coupled with student-based allocation of revenues to schools. While the current report builds on prior efforts from Fordham and others, it differs in a number of key ways. Most notably, the current report suggests that Ohio should implement a fully state-funded system. Second, the current report avoids unfounded claims that research has found decentralized governance to necessarily improve student outcomes. Third, it takes a measured approach toward recommendations for implementing the reform, and it acknowledges the potential political influences that might compromise equity goals of weighted funding formulas. The report’s primary weakness is its general failure to use research literature concerning within- and between-district funding inequities and concerning factors associated with the costs of education that should be considered if a funding system is to be truly equitable. These oversights significantly compromise a central objective of the report’s proposals-simultaneously resolving within-and between-district funding disparities.

Suggested Citation:

Baker, B. (2008). Review of "Fund the Child: Bringing Equity, Autonomy, and Portability to Ohio School Finance."  Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved [date] from http://epicpolicy.org/thinktank/review-fund-child