The distribution of state funding to school districts has a tremendous impact on student learning opportunities. State leaders juggle different priorities, tradeoffs and incentives when designing funding formulas with the goal of ensuring every student has the learning opportunities to succeed. This toolkit offers a strategic guide for reforming…

As school systems work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, states continue to grapple with persistent teacher shortages, a lack of teachers of color in the workforce, and high turnover rates undermining recruitment efforts. Teachers' effectiveness and their likelihood of staying in teaching are strongly influenced by the quality of preparation…

Finding funds to build and renovate facilities is a major hurdle for public charter schools because most state laws do not provide charter schools with the full amount of state and local funding that other public schools receive. Although an increasing number of states are passing laws to address charter school facility funding gaps, inequities…

States and districts allocate hundreds of billions of dollars annually to fund K-12 schools, and this allocation is largely driven by one calculation: how states count student enrollment. They do this in one of five ways: (1) A single count on a single day; (2) Two counts twice per year; (3) Multiple counts over a period of time; (4) An attendance…

This profile provides detailed local context for Indiana as part of "Follow the Money: A Detailed Analysis of the Funding Mechanisms of Voucher Programs in Six Cases" (Arizona, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin). This three-part report includes a cross-case review, data visualizations of enrollment and…

On February 24, 2017, all of the authors of the state-of-the-state manuscripts published in the "Journal of Education Finance" met in Cincinnati, Ohio, to participate in a roundtable discussion focused on recent legislative actions in 38 states. A majority of those papers were revised to reflect a final report on legislative actions…

This comprehensive review is part of a three-part report, Follow the "Money: A Detailed Analysis of the Funding Mechanisms of Voucher Programs in Six Cases"; this review contains the cross-case analysis and findings of the funding mechanisms of voucher programs across five states (Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin) and the…

Presenters at the State of the States Roundtable session at the 2014 National Education Finance Conference in Louisville were invited to submit their papers for publication. These papers address the following topics: (1) State issues affecting P-12 and/or higher education funding; (2) Funding priorities/trends for P-12 and/or higher education; (3)…

Presenters at the State of the States Roundtable session at the 2014 National Education Finance Conference in Louisville were invited to submit their papers for publication. These papers address the following topics: (1) State issues affecting P-12 and/or higher education funding; (2) Funding priorities/trends for P-12 and/or higher education; (3)…

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) playbook series has explored strategies and processes states can use to strengthen CTE program quality and provide students with pathways to postsecondary credentialing and middle- and higher wage career opportunities. In the first three CTE Playbooks, ExcelinEd provided a high-level view of how states can…

Michigan has a problem. By several measures, the achievement of students attending its K-12 educational system has not kept pace with other states. Although Michigan's student achievement has improved over the past decade, the improvement has been modest, and achievement in many other states has easily surpassed that in Michigan. Furthermore,…

Individual states have a long tradition of providing financial support for their public K-12 schools. This support reflects the state's constitutional requirement to educate its citizens. However, states vary widely in both the amount of funding provided to public schools, and the distribution of funding among schools. The fundamental observation…

Reports findings of a study to determine the equity of the current Indiana fiscal distribution for pupil transportation expenditures and develop a more equitable funding model, if possible. If new state appropriation monies are added, a percentage equalizing method should be instituted that would assist school corporations in greatest need. (seven…

Indiana's school funding formula was developed in response to a lawsuit challenging the state's educational system's constitutionality. A reward-for-effort formula sets each school corporation's per-pupil noncategorical revenue, general fund property tax rate, and percentage of state aid. Funding for alternative education is planned for 1997. (MLH)

Identifies current problems and education issues confronting the Indiana legislature and predicts some issues the upcoming session will likely consider. A new "reward for effort" tax-base formula has resulted in urban districts receiving the lowest share of state revenue and rural districts the highest. Funding for textbooks, bilingual…