This paper examines the impact of ethnic and racial diversity on the public's willingness to invest in public goods. Challenging the prevalent assertion that increasing diversity reduces support for investing in public goods, it argues that this relationship is substantially shaped by the context in which people live because demographic changes…

This year marks the 20th year of National Access and Finance Survey (NAFS) studies of access and funding issues in public higher education. National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges (NCSDCC) members are surveyed because of their broad knowledge of access and finance issues across education sectors and state government as well. For…

This article analyzes U.S. Department of Education data on appropriations on Pell Grants using the new Mission-Driven Classification (MDC) to disaggregate enrollment, finance, and need-based Pell Grant data by major public higher education sector and, within community colleges, by geography (rural, suburban, and urban) as well as by the presence…

This paper establishes the empirical relationship between the fiscal policy, demographic transition and public spending or expenditure on education in India with special reference to higher education. Public higher education spending is shown to be related to fiscal policy, if such expenditure is budgeted by the General Government and financed by…

For the first time in the history of the State of the States, all 50 states will be represented with entries this year. A number of state legislatures are working to provide public education the necessary fiscal support to provide students with a high quality 21st century education, or restore funding levels for public education to pre-Great…

The relationship between educational expenditures and student achievement is a debate that has taken place over the course of nearly four decades. Accordingly, some researchers have labeled this question the "holy grail" of school finance (Stiefel, Schwartz, Rubenstein, & Zable, 2005). Most scholars trace this debate to the…

The landscape of school finance in Colorado paints an interesting picture of the influence of legislative initiatives on the equity of school per pupil revenue. Colorado has a convoluted history of enacting legislative initiatives designed to influence the influx and distribution of state revenue, which has created an environment in which the…

The Great Recession induced by the financial crisis accelerated the decades of declining state funding support for U.S. public higher education, while simultaneously bringing increased political pressures for demonstrating improvements in the operating efficiencies among all universities and colleges. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First,…

North Carolina special education funding utilizes a dollar allotment per identified student, applying a funding cap based on a percentage of district average daily membership. While representing an attempt to reduce over-identification of students with special needs the funding cap has led to large systematic disparities in district fiscal…

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 study explores the impact of state-level guaranteed tuition laws on state general appropriations for higher education. Using the "Truth-in-Tuition" law that was implemented in Illinois in 2004 as the treatment condition, this study analyzes data from 2000-2012. To test the direction and size of the effect on state general…

The Great Recession caused states around the country to make substantial budget cuts to public education. As a result, districts that rely more heavily on state funding -- those with greater concentrations of students in poverty -- may be disproportionately impacted by the Great Recession funding cuts; however, little prior research examines this…

The ideology of cost effectiveness is altering the nature of American educational policy. The impact of this belief system is measured in the literature, and in practice, by following vast sums of private money. The public nature of fiscal policymaking in US education is transformed, and policymakers throughout the nation are mesmerized, by false…

Previous research has shown that Tax Revolt Provisions (TRPs) aimed at limiting state government revenues and/or expenditures, negatively impact public higher education funding. This analysis explores the influence of these same types of policies on average in-state undergraduate tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities.…

While recent research has shown that restrictive state fiscal policies, such as tax and expenditure limitations (TELs), matter for state spending to public higher education, no study has examined the impacts that other restrictive state fiscal policies might have on expenditures to this same sector. In this analysis we examine the relationship…