1. Define fiscal capacity. How does your state rank in terms of fiscal capacity to support schools?
2. Explain how an education system benefits from efficiency of size in its operation of schools.
3. Define fiscal effort. Explain why effort is difficult to operationalize.
4. Describe how to compute effort. Identify several additional factors that could be considered in computing
effort. Which of those factors would make your school district appear to have higher or lower effort ratios?
Explain your answer.
5. Identify the various factors that should be considered in computing effort that are not included in your state.
Explain your answer.
6. If the school board referenced in the Case Study presented to the governing body only selected data using
“favorable” tax base information to compute an effort index, how would you explain other data subsequently
discovered by the governing body that might lead to a different conclusion?
7. Using multiple measures as you examine the Texas state data on the companion website at
www.routledge.com/cw/owingskaplan which locality has the greatest capacity to fund its schools? Which
locality has the least capacity to fund its schools? Explain your answer.