Bill Koski and Michael Kirst meet with Roosevelt Fellows > Roosevelt Home > In the News > Bill Koski and Michael Kirst meet with Roosevelt Fellows
STANFORD, California - May 18, 2005 - Fellows from the Roosevelt Insitution's Center on Education and Learning met today with Professors Michael Kirst and Bill Koski to discuss issues related to school finance and accountability. At the meeting, set up as a roundtable discussion, Professor's Kirst and Koski surveyed the history of educational accountability movements in the United States, culminating in the development of state standards to comply with No Child Left Behind. With limited federal money and illogical, politically-jumbled state finance systems, states have developed their versions of the standards, but are finding it impossible to meet these strict accountability targets. This disparity is particularly salient in California, a state that has some of the most ambitious performance standards, yet ranks near the nation's lowest in per pupil expenditures. Fellows also discussed the concept of "reciprocal accountability," presented by Koski as a framework within which the state would also be held accountable for providing an adequate level of funding and educational quality for students. According to Center on Education and Learning co-director Eric Kramon, "the meeting with Professor's Koski and Kirst helped us gain more perspective as well as a more in depth understanding of some of the major issues and injustices in our education system. Our discussion also pointed to substantial research gaps - particularly the need to determine what levels of funding are sufficient for given sets of accountability standards - that our Center is excited to play a role in filling." Event co-organizer Jonathan Elkin continues that "Even if researchers determine an adequate level of funding, the harder question will be how to push these funding recommendations through budget-strapped state legislatures." While lawsuits like New York's "Campaign for Fiscal Equity" and the Williams v. California minimum facilities case are a start, coalitions of teachers, students, and policy groups will need to continue pressing for more overhaul to align state education finance systems with high standards. Kirst hopes a more far-reaching California adequacy suit can act as a "stick of dynamite" to provide Sacramento lawmakers with the political window necessary to enact these changes.
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