The recent fiscal crisis triggered major changes in the funding of K-12 public education. State tax receipts—which account for between 40 and 50 percent of revenues flowing to public schools—have declined by 12 percent in real terms since the start of the Great Recession in 2008. The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act temporarily offset these reductions in state aid by allocating $50 billion in federal stimulus to public schools, but such infusions of federal funding are unlikely to continue in light of the current fiscal and political climate. If federal and state aid to public education continues to decline, local government revenues will play an increasingly important role in offsetting these reductions and responding to pressures for increased levels of K-12 funding. Property taxes currently generate over 80 percent of local own-source revenues for public schools. However, local governments often are unable to increase the level of property tax revenues flowing to local public schools due to state-level policies including property tax limitations, school finance equalization measures, and categorical funding requirements mandating the allocation of local revenues. These restrictions contribute to government failure, in which the level of public education spending in many school districts is lower than what many households are willing to pay. To increase school spending to desired levels, local governments often must rely on overriding property tax limitations—via voter referenda—or on alternatives to the property tax. The proposed panel presents three papers examining state and local responses to these challenges in public school finance. The first paper, “The Salience of Property Tax Provisions,” examines whether different tax exemptions—namely, an exemption appearing on a property tax bill versus an exemption provided through the income tax—appeal to voters differently. They explore this issue using data on the New York School Tax Relief Program (STAR), a homestead exemption that also provided an income tax rebate. The second paper, “Why Has Growth of User Fees as a Source of Local Education Revenues Been So Limited?” examines changes in user fees for financing public education. The third paper, “Do Constraints on Local Revenue-Raising Cause Changes in Voluntary Contributions to Public Schools?” examines whether local revenue-raising constraints—due to Tax Expenditure Limitations, property tax limitations, or school finance equalization—cause changes in voluntary contributions to schools. Collectively, these papers discuss the new—and growing—challenges in financing public education following the Great Recession. Further, these papers examine how proposed solutions to K-12 school finance—including growth in user fees and voluntary contributions—seek to address government failure at the expense of exacerbating inequality across school districts.