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As interest in the “politics of education” continue to mount in the United States it becomes important to try to explicate the fundamental political ideology which continues to shape current developments in school finance in that country. In this article it is argued that there is an identifiable “democratic theory of school finance” and that the roots of this political theory can be found in the works of such “classical” authors as Aristotle, Thucydides, Thomas Jefferson, Alex de Tocqueville, Caleb Mills, and others. A body of current professional educational literature and some court opinions are then summarized and illustrations are provided to show that the basic political values of the “classical” authors are still very much present in the newer professional literature and in the court opinions. Finally a postscript is provided to bring the reader even closer to additional school finance literature in the United States. Students of the politics of education might be interested to learn that this was a bipartisan effort. Professors Hickrod and Hubbard are normally associated with the Democratic Party in the United States, while Professor Laymon customarily finds himself on the Republican side of the aisle. The article thus provides some evidence that there can be agreement on principles of democracy and constitutional government that transcends political party affiliation.

Economic efficiency of public school districts was explored by utilization of the concept of economies and dis‐economies of scale. An optimum size relative to costs was discovered by analyzing the data with curvilinear least squares regression and also with the differential calculus. The sample was taken from elementary, high school, and K–12 (unit) districts in the state of Illinois, U.S.A. Suggestions for further research on the general notion of optimum size of school districts are presented.