Abstract
The founding of the Journal of Education Finance dates back to the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. In Public Law 89-10, Title V, Sec. 505, ESEA provided funding for the creating the National Educational Finance Project (NEFP) through the Office of Education1 for approximately $2,000,000 with the exception of an additional $175,000 which was funded by the Department of Agriculture for the purpose of studying the financing of the School Food Service Program. This was the first comprehensive national study of school finance since 1933.
NEFP was designed to address many of these current issues and was a cooperative research project between federal agencies and all fifty states that participated in the project. The project was administered through the Florida State Department of Education and the University of Florida at Gainesville. In addition to the project directors R. L. Johns and Kern Alexander, this initiative involved many national educational experts including project and advisory committee members Edgar Morphet from the University of California, Erick Lindman from U.C.L.A., William McLure from the University of Illinois, Richard Rossmiller from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Forbis Jordan from the University of Florida, Richard Salmon from Oklahoma State University and James Kelly from Columbia University. Others that made this nationwide project included James Gibbs from the U.S. Office of Education, Henry Cone from the Education Commission of the States and all fifty chief state school officers and staff.