This article compares state expenditure data to see how the operating budgets of public community colleges specifically, and public higher education institutions generally, have fared over the past 30 years. Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) have long tracked major state expenditure categories, including the…

Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

This report discusses the current state of higher education, with a brief high-level overview of the market and a more detailed discussion and analysis of the financial aid system. It also discusses the important changes President Obama has made to make higher education more accessible and affordable. The key findings are: (1) The economic returns…

U.S. educators and policymakers are concerned about the poor performance of the public schools, particularly schools that serve students from low-income families. Although education is primarily a state function, the federal government also has a longstanding interest in improving education for disadvantaged students, and it targets funding to…

This document presents a comprehensive picture of educational personnel development. In addition to updating Federal and state involvement in educational development, the report begins with a history of professional development of teachers and ends with an analysis of research on teacher education. It is divided into the following major sections:…

This volume analyzes government policies for helping students pay for education beyond high school and was developed as a result of an October 1994 gathering of policymakers, analysts, and practitioners convened to review federal student assistance and to consider policy alternatives for the Clinton Administration. Chapter 1, "A Fifty-Year…

This report provides recent statistics on trends in student aid in the 1980s and 1990s for the federal government, state governments, and educational institutions. The analysis also reports on changes in the costs of attending college and in family incomes in order to provide a context for assessing whether college is becoming more or less…

The paper reviews the Reagan administration's efforts to convert human services financing to a block grant approach and describes the response of the United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCPA). The Budget Reconciliation Act and its impact on funding for such services as developmental disabilities, vocational rehabilitation, and Title XX Social…

This paper discusses historical, financial, and governance issues in American Indian education in New York State, as well as future directions that may be taken to improve educational opportunities for American Indians. In New York, unique interrelationships between tribes and state have shaped the development of Indian education down to the…

This report discusses the policy implications of the increasing role played by grants provided by colleges and universities as a source of financial aid for students and their families. It underscores the direct and indirect connections between changes in federal and state policy and institutions' aid programs, focusing on the effects of the…

Tailored-for-industry programs like South Carolina's Special Schools and Minnesota's New Jobs raise questions concerning the effectiveness of such programs in creating jobs and their influence on future local and national education policy. Almost every state has a subsidized for-industry program which trains workers for new or expanding industries…

Federal statistical services grossly underestimate the size of the farmworker population; as a result, the current federal farmworker programs (CETA, Migrant Education, Migrant Headstart, Farm Labor Housing, and Migrant Health) are unable to identify a total target population in need of services and unable to allocate funds in ways which reflect…

Recommendations of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation to encourage collaboration among government, voluntary, individual, community, and private sector efforts are reported in this publication which presents a historical review of the Committee from 1966 through 1986. The background and establishment of the Committee are discussed in…

In response to proposed reforms designed to replace many federal child welfare programs with block grants to states, this report describes a study of recent trends foster care, resources for foster care and child welfare services, and state responses to current foster care and child welfare service needs. The study reviewed research on foster care…

This policy update presents key aspects of the statutory language of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-239), which provides states and localities with federal funds to be used as venture capital to underwrite the initial costs of planning and establishing statewide School-to-Work Opportunities systems. The paper focuses…