Helping Children Left Behind: State Aid and the Pursuit of Educational Equality. Edited by John Yinger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. 145p. $40.00.

The role of state courts in defining educational finances is the focus of this book that results from a 2001 conference in the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University. The author explores the role of state appellate courts since the seminal case of Serrano v. Priest (1971) challenging the constitutionality of local property taxation to fund local schools. About one-half of subsequent state courts followed suit, but the other half did not.