Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The study's purpose was to test if there is a significant difference in the amount of general fund monies used to support specialEducation programs among Indiana school corporations identified by wealth. The independent variables were defined as: (1) the percent of households with children living in poverty, (2) assessed valuation per pupil, and, (3) general fund per pupil appropriations. The dependent variable was defined as the amount of general fund monies used to support specialEducation programs. This study was completed in Indiana including all Indiana public school corporations. The sample of school corporations was selected from the three defined variables for wealth. The 15 school corporations determined to be the highest in wealth were compared to the 15 corporations determined to be the lowest in wealth in each variable category. The sample for each variable category is 10 percent of the population. Corporation size was not a determining factor. While this variety of wealth categories was considered in relation to general fund monies supporting specialEducation, these measures of wealth did not indicate an increase or decrease in funding expenditures. An investigation of reporting latitudes, multiple levels of bureaucracy and unreconciled summaries of data continue to widen the gap between perceptions and actual spending disparities. While no significant difference among wealth measures and specialEducation general fund expenditures were indicated in this study, reporting process discrepancies indicate that specialEducation expenditure burdens could reasonably exist in the general fund. The reporting process section interprets the gap existing between perceived disparities between specialEducation and spending in three different categorical domains.

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