State of the States

In 2016, a group of school finance scholars and public school practitioners gathered in Jacksonville, Florida, for the National Education Finance Academy's annual conference to discuss, among an array of topics, the state of P-20 finance in all 50 states. At the roundtable discussion, 36 states were represented, and scholars representing 30 states submitted manuscripts to the "Journal of Education Finance" for possible publication. The National Education Finance Academy and the "Journal of Education Finance" entered into an agreement to ensure that the state of states data is published annually for the benefit of school finance scholars and policymakers. This publication represents the first of the special editions published in the Journal of Education Finance focused on the state of the states. The report concludes with an article which provides new findings on state allocation policies to school districts for English Language Learners. Data were collected through a 50-state survey of education finance policies and programs sent to the Chief State School Officer or their designee. Information from all 50 states indicated that there is rising interest in providing assistance to English Learners, with a trend towards weighted student funding. The following contents are included: (1) Making Sense of Fiscal Uncertainty: An Overview of the 2016 States of the States (Brittany Larkin and Spencer C. Weiler); (2) Alabama (Philip Westbrook and Brenda Mendiola); (3) Alaska (Randall S. Vesely); (4) Arizona (Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos and David Martinez); (5) Arkansas (Steve Bounds); (6) California (Henry Tran); (7) Colorado (Gabriel R. Serna, Kelly H. Summers, and Spencer C. Weiler); (8) Connecticut (Lesley DeNardis); (9) Florida (Gabriel R. Serna, Kelly H. Summers, and Spencer C. Weiler); (10) Georgia (Brittany Larkin); (11) Illinois (Christine Kiracofe); (12) Kansas (Thomas A. DeLuca); (13) Kentucky (Tyrone Bynoe); (14) Louisiana (Venice M. Adams and David G. Buckman); (15) Massachusetts (Tyrone Bynoe); (16) Michigan (Brett Geier and Dennis McCrumb); (17) Minnesota (Nicola A. Alexander); (18) Mississippi (Spencer D. Stone and Michael Robinson); (19) Montana (Lou L. Sabina); (19) Nebraska (Barbara La Cost); (20) Nevada (Deborah A. Verstegen); (21) New Mexico (David G. Martinez and Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos); (22) New York (Osnat Zaken); (23) North Carolina (Lisa G. Driscoll, Jim R. Watson, and Walter Hart); (24) Ohio (Barbara M. De Luca and Krystal Chenault); (25) Ok