Simulation Files
Below are finance simulations for several states as well as the 20-District Simulation referenced in School Finance: A Policy Perspective. Please notice that there exist two versions of Excel files, as Microsoft Excel 2003 varies much from Microsoft Excel 2007. Note, also, that at this point neither version works well on a MAC platform, but selecting the appropriate Office Professional version on a PC platform does work assuming installation of the appropriate two ToolPaks and you have enabled macros (as mentioned below and detailed in “Appendix: Using the Simulation” in: Odden, A., & Picus, L. O. (2008). School finance: A policy perspective (4th edition). New York: McGraw Hill, which details the issues involved in downloading as well as running these simulations).
Given prior issues that students have encountered when running these simulations, please note that these simulations will work only if these tasks are performed:
1) Microsoft ToolPak must be enabled
2) Microsoft ToolPak-VBA must be enabled
3) “Macros” must be enabled
4) All files must be “save target as” or similar to your desktop or another drive—no file will work if opened within an internet browser
5) If you receive error messages when using the ctrl-q or other similar functions, ensure the previous 4 steps have been taken, then delete any previous versions of your files, and download again the Excel document.
Below are the Excel documents appropriate for Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 Professional versions for PCs. The files are large, 4 to 6 MB each, and may take over 15 minutes to download with a 56.6K modem.
| Excel 2003 | Excel 2007 |
| WI0506 | WI0506 |
| WI9899 | WI9899 |
| WI9596 | WI9596 |
| WI0203 | WI0203 |
| WI0001 | WI0001 |
| VT9697 | VT9697 |
| OH0102 |
OH0102 |
| NJ9899 |
NJ9899 |
| KY9900 |
KY9900 |
| KY9596 |
KY9596 |
| KY9091 | KY9091 |
| IL9495 |
IL9495 |
| IL0001 | IL0001 |
| IL0102 | IL0102 |
| IL0506 | IL0506 |
| 20DIST | 20DIST |