This article presents the state education finance and governance profile of West Virginia. West Virginia is the 41st largest state in the United States, with an area of 24,231 square miles. The total population of West Virginia in 2008 was 1,814,468, making it the 37th most populous state in the United States. Current expenditures per pupil are…

This article presents Louisiana's education finance and governance profile. Louisiana witnessed a 3.9% decline in population during the period from 2000 to 2007. Poverty persists both in urban and rural areas of the state, as demonstrated by visible poverty both in the agricultural parishes and in major cities such as New Orleans and Shreveport…

This article presents the state education finance and governance profile of Alabama. The state is home to 1,538 public schools distributed across 67 county school systems and 64 city school systems. State spending is allocated via two separate budgets, "the general fund" for all noneducation related expenditures and the Education Trust…

This article provides information on Maryland's state education finance and governance. The state provides a foundation funding program, which guarantees a minimum or foundation level of per-pupil expenditures for children in all the state's school systems; this is done through a combination of state aid and local revenue. In 2002, Maryland…

The U.S. District Court ruling in Rodriguez vs San Antonio Independent School District, which struck down Texas' school finance system as inequitable and unconstitutional, provided the impetus for publishing this interim report. The report documents the growing cost of State-supported public school programs--the primary concern prior to the…

Rural equality of opportunity is a single, composite topic, which encompasses three types of rural residents and eight rural specific concepts of equality of opportunity. The three types of rural residents are: indigenous minorities; country town or remote rural residents and rural itinerants; and neo-ruralists or urban expatriates. The first two…

New Jersey's urban--or "Abbott"--schools have improved at the preschool and elementary school level, but lag when it comes to middle and high school performance. These are the key findings of an Abbott Indicators Project report entitled, "The Abbott Districts in 2005-06: Progress and Challenges." The report was prepared by…