Source: Reason Foundation
In the 21st century, local control of education should mean providing educators with autonomy in the classroom and giving parents meaningful options to hold them accountable for outcomes. This requires portable funding where money follows a child to their school of choice and is best supported by an entirely counterintuitive reform: centralizing funding in order to decentralize education. The most effective way to accomplish this is to move away from local education revenues entirely and adopt a full-state funding model. In this model, states would allocate dollars based on the weighting of each student according to their needs, known as “weighted student formula.” This approach to school finance promotes choice, fairness and accountability while also helping to break up districts’ geographic monopolies.