Almost two years into the federal Race to the Top program, states are spending their shares of the $4 billion prize at a snail's pace--a reflection of the challenges the 12 winners face as they try to get ambitious education improvement plans off the ground. Through the end of March, the 11 states and the District of Columbia had spent just 14…

School business officials are best equipped to lead in funding operating and capital needs because they understand the need for a methodical means of funding ongoing costs over time and the benefits of planning for future financial needs rather than letting emergencies dictate spending priorities. A capital-financing plan makes it possible to…

This study compares the overall spending trends and patterns of growth of Academic Libraries with Public Libraries, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and hospitals in the period of 1998 to 2008. Academic Libraries, while showing a growth of 13% over inflation for the period, far underperformed the growth of the other public institutions…

Now in its 29th year, The Industry Report is recognized as the training industry's most trusted source of data on budgets, staffing, and programs. This year, the study was conducted by an outside research firm in June-August 2010, when members from the "Training" magazine database were e-mailed an invitation to participate in an online…

Econometric cost functions have begun to appear in education adequacy cases with greater frequency. Cost functions are superficially attractive because they give the impression of objectivity, holding out the promise of scientifically estimating the cost of achieving specified levels of performance from actual data on spending. By contrast, the…

Discusses various aspects of Training's business profiles, including budgets (salaries, raw materials, hardware, facilities, overhead), employee-to-trainer ratio, number of hours of training, training budget as a percent of total sales, and training budget as a percent of total payroll. (CT)

An economic analysis of setting tuition rates for organized camps addresses four topics of general interest: (1) measuring the economic value (revenues and expenses) of a camp; (2) measuring the true costs (fixed holding costs, fixed costs, and variable operating costs) of operation; (3) establishing a demand curve for measuring camp revenue; and…

Addressed is the problem of increasing indirect costs in federally supported research at universities and colleges. Effects of this increase are examined, using data on National Institutes of Health grants to educational institutions for examples. Discussed is the establishment of uniform indirect cost rates to modify the present policy. (CS)

Maintains that music educators need to become familiar with the budget process in order to act as advocates for their program. Offers several suggestions designed to increase the probability of program requests appropriation. Recommends creating a business plan and encouraging partnerships. (MJP)