Adequacy Approach in School Finance

In many parts of the world, the focus of school financing has been on fiscal equity. However, school finance in the United States has been repositioning itself to provide for fiscal adequacy as well as improving equity since the 1990s. This article reviews adequacy in school finance, both from the conceptual and methodological perspective. Conceptually, adequacy is framed around the notions of adequacy of educational inputs, adequacy in school processes, and adequacy of educational outputs. From empirical perspective, four different methods are applied to quantify adequacy. Policy makers in developing countries should shift to fiscal adequacy which emphasizes on adequate per student funding for schools to deploy successful educational strategies in educating students to high performance standards.