1. Back to court Equality cases: how do they relate to what we learnt before? Serrano v. Priest (1971 and then 1976) San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez (1973) Compare with Plessy vs Ferguson Brown vs Topeka Miliken vs Bradley

2. Current state Is this a stable position? – Consequences in CA: Proposition 13 Does it go too far? Is equity in financing an adequate ceiling? Does it go far enough? What about inequality of outcomes?

3. Federal role Traditionally very limited (Office of Education, stats) Compensatory Education (1965) IDEA (1975, 1997). Bilingual education No Child Left Behind (2001): accountability and money More recently – Race to the Top: incentivizes a number of desirable practices: use of data, teacher evaluation – Common Core (Fed supports the process)

4. Alternative options for the federal role (non-exhaustive) Funder/equalizer of access Regulator of outcomes (NCLB) Regulator of procedures (disabled education) Incentivizer of certain procedures (Race to the Top, Common Core) Prescriber of procedures Principal (Prussian model) Heavier Federal involvement

5. What should be done at the federal level? A theory (Oates 1972): – Decisions should be taken at the lowest level that encompasses all of its costs and benefits (i.e. captures all externalities), e.g. local labor markets – Motivation of localism in education: federal government has limited access to local information, There are few economies of scale (teaching is local) – …But what about inequality of access? Is this covered? – What about local political patronage?

6. Unintended consequences? Who does the federal role use to affect? Who does it affect now? What can the federal government do better than the states? What will it do worse?