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EDL 565 - School Finance

Financing Educational Facilities
Chapter 13 Study Guide and Assessment 5e

1. Briefly summarize the court rulings on school facilities. Are there any Supreme Court

rulings?

The Cave Creek v. Martin saw the plaintiffs seek funding in tandem with a compulsory

requirement for voter-approved mechanism for funding school facilities. The Roosevelt

Elementary Sch. Dist. v. Bishop revolved around Arizona Supreme Court struck down the

state’s capital funding system under the state constitution’s "general and uniform" provision.

The closest education related Supreme Court ruling was the Horne v. Flores, 129 S.Ct. 2579

(2009) involved an appeal made by the State of Arizona in dispute of the decision of the

federal district court in Arizona that had found the state to be in violation of the Equal

Educational Opportunity Act.

2. How are school facilities financed in general? In Arizona?

Financing of school facilities involves initiatives from the school board such as general

obligation bonds (paid over a long duration) and state assistance in the form of flat grants,

equalization aid, basic support, full state support, lease purchase agreements, leases, rental of

school space, local option sales taxes, developer fees and sinking funds.

Within Arizona, financing of school facilities involves the use of state assistance and school

board initiatives.

3. How would you determine if your facility was adequate? Is it? Why or why not?
 The key determinant to an adequate facility is as to whether or not it contains adequate space

for learning. For example, an assessment ought to be undertaken to discern as to whether the

students are adequately roomed with\in classrooms, eateries and play ground.

To this end, looking at the population at Tucson Elementary vis-à-vis the above criterion,

suffice to say that the facility is very adequate albeit more could be done to increase the

range of facilities.

4. What is the impact of facilities on achievement?

The amount of research undertaken on the same is largely vague. Nevertheless, what is

apparent is the fact that learning institutions need to be both clean and safe for learning. In

future, research ought to be geared towards investigating as to whether or not there is any

relationship between advanced learning facilities and the acquisition of knowledge.