Editor's Note: A Brief History of JEFL'S Predecessor, the Journal of Education Finance (JEF)

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.Prior to the creation of NEFP critical decisions relating to provisions for financing schools were being made annually, biennially and sometimes on a continuing basis by individual states. Unfortunately, most of these decisions were made without adequate consideration to long-range educational and fiscal planning, despite education being the largest budgetary item in each state. Most states conducted inconsistent studies of school finance without the benefit of appropriate research or any consistent relationship to long-term fiscal planning. Many of the committees appointed by state governors and legislatures had neither the time nor the funds to conduct the necessary research and interstate collaboration to guide them in decision making on education finance and other aspects of education. The results of most of these state committees were mixed with some studies providing improved policies and provisions, while others had little or no impact.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.One goal of NEFP was to provide academic expertise and oversee research projects on education issues that were needed by governors, state legislators and state and local boards of education to make rational and defensible decisions related to school finance and policies. The project's objectives also included determining what kinds of research and studies needed to be made to facilitate rational planning, how education finance decisions be made, and who should make them.2The NEFP produced numerous national outcomes including eleven special studies produced by university educational finance experts. In addition to the special studies, five text volumes were published and include: Dimensions of Educational NeedEconomic Factors Affecting the Financing of EducationPlanning to Finance Education (all of the eleven special study findings are summarized)Status and Impact of Educational Finance ProgramsAlternative Programs for Financing EducationThese publications were nationally distributed and became the first state-by-state comprehensive “best practice” analysis in education finance in areas including educational costs needs, weighted pupil funding by grades, trends in state school expenditures, equalization funding models and cost benefit and effectiveness models of state and local funding.Another important result of the NEFP was the recognition that educational finance is an under-researched academic field and as the largest fiscal responsibility of every state, needs increased attention and continuous research by academic and other researchers. This resulted in the creation of the Journal of Education Finance by R. L. Johns and Kern Alexander in 1973, which would be located and published at the University of Florida. Since 1973 the Journal of Education Finance has become the preeminent academic journal in studying the nation's best education finance practices, trends and challenges in public K-12 schools and higher education. The JEF has attracted many national and international subscribers from individual researchers, policy makers, government officials, research institutes and academic and libraries.Over the last fifty years the Journal has witnessed a number of changes. For example, the Journal partnered with the National Education Finance Academy (NEFA) in 2017 to bring subscribers the annual financial update for each state with the State of the States edition published annually. In 2002 the Journal relocated to the University of Illinois and its press as publishers. Johns Hopkins University Press – Project MUSE has joined the University of Illinois Press and the Journal of Education Finance in online production of the Journal.However, more recently in 2025, the Journal of Education Finance (JEF) has become the Journal of Education Finance and Law (JEFL) after having formed a comprehensive partnership with the Education Law Association (ELA) which is celebrating their seventieth year as an organization. This is a natural fit for the Journal since the areas of educational finance and law are closely related in academic research, practice and policy development since public education's inception. This alliance with ELA will permit JEFL to be open to new education researchers, practitioners and institutions in the coming years.