Chapter 12: Fiscal Policy in Urban Education: Lessons Learned and Implications for Research

The intent of this volume was to consider some of the major issues currently confronting fiscal policy in urban schools and school systems. Given the breadth of this field of inquiry, our effort is an important, but incomplete one. We have focused on some of the most current, contested, and critical issues facing urban fiscal policy with the hope of shedding light and raising issues. As we recognized in the introduction to the volume, urban schools face multiple serious challenges as they work to reach high standards for all students. The goal of this final chapter is twofold: first, to highlight some of the key lessons that surface from the chapters in this volume, and, second, to outline compelling issues in need of further examination. These comments are organized into four sections, each highlighting an important consideration that policy makers, leaders, and researchers need to pay close attention to as they attend to the fiscal needs of urban schools and school systems. The chapter concludes with final remarks about the volume.