Equitable school funding is key to achieving overall educational fairness. Successful state education finance reform advocates must address the causes of funding inequity and create solutions that consider the effects of changes from different perspectives.
Designing Change: A Toolkit for State Education Finance Reform gives advocates resources to improve their state education finance systems and develop sound policy solutions that promote adequacy, equity, responsibility, and transparency. This toolkit was created for state advocates and policymakers whose states are ready or pushing for school finance reforms.
It is grounded in Bellwether’s firsthand experiences supporting public agencies, state legislatures, and advocacy coalitions to design and pass school finance reforms. The toolkit outlines the three phases of policy design and how to create actionable policy proposals:
Phase 1: Define principles and problems.
Phase 2: Develop solutions.
Phase 3: Transform ideas into action.
