The New York State Board of Regents' 2004-05 State Aid Proposal put forward the idea of instituting Foundation Aid as a response to concerns about the sufficiency of state education funding then being provided to local school districts. In 2007, prompted by legal action, a call for reform by the Regents, and the election of a new governor with a…

The passage of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) in 1990 had a dramatic impact on the funding of primary and secondary education in the state. The amount of money spent on education increased significantly with the passage of KERA with districts in rural areas of the state experiencing the largest growth in spending (Hoyt, 1999). This has…

This document presents the U.S. Department of Education's budget for 2002. This is the first budget under President George W. Bush, and it reflects the president's goals for six areas in education: close the achievement gap, empower parents with choices, expand flexibility and reduce bureaucracy, improve elementary and secondary education, bolster…

As of March 2008, over half of U.S. states are facing projected budget shortfalls for the coming fiscal year. During economic downturns such as this, opportunities available to hard-working, low-wage families are diminished. These conditions create growing concerns for policymakers who must, with fewer state resources, enhance opportunities and…

The Commission initiated a funding to review national funding models for higher education led by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). Each institution contributed to the cost of the study and participated in the effort. NCHEMS' key recommendation is to move the funding discussions for higher education away from a…

Uses a typical Lorenz-curve framework to measure inequality of resource allocation in South African education. Although improvements have been achieved over the past two decades, substantial inequalities remain. The current distribution of educational resources is much more unequal than that for developed countries but not as inequitable as that…

This paper examines changes in California's school finance system over the past 35 years. It focuses specifically on the growth of categorical program funding. The study assesses the nature and magnitude of changes, the causes of those changes, the significance of those changes for the capacity of schools to provide high quality educational…

Adequate revenue is essential to the existence of good schools. Recognizing this truth, numerous governors have proposed and many states have adopted tax increases to enhance school funding. The real question is whether education spending increased more than it would have if taxes had not been increased. To answer these questions, the booklet was…

Ever since the publication of "A Nation At Risk" in 1983, Americans have been preoccupied with two problems regarding public education: (1) student performance is unsatisfactory to most Americans despite large increases in real spending per student; and despite several attempts at reforming curricula, teacher training, testing, and other…

Current expense tax rates, local current expense revenues, total current expenses from all revenue sources, and expenditures for salaries were analyzed in 16 school districts to review the effects of a state statute that significantly modified the formula of state equalization fund allocation. Twenty-four tables of financial information are used…

A program-based funding model is presented for the California community colleges, using five major categories of programs and services (i.e., instruction, instructional services and libraries, student services, maintenance and operations, and institutional support). Following an executive summary, section I of the report deals with the need for…

Updated were statistics of an earlier study done by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) in 1980, entitled "The Missouri School Finance Study." The recent results differed from the earlier study's, illustrating the extent to which revenues per pupil depended on local property wealth and income. The results of the first study…

The purpose of this study was to determine the cost relationships among the educational programs in Tennessee prior to the implementation of Tennessee's weighted pupil formula (1976-77) and to examine expenditure patterns for the first year of the actual operation of the formula (1977-78). All mandated programs were examined as well as additional…

The complexity of the federal tax code has been the focus of reform efforts for decades, and has received considerable attention in the economic literature. The federal system for distributing student financial aid is similarly convoluted, yet has received relatively little attention from economists. For the typical household, the aid application…

The system for financing education in Illinois fails to deliver sufficient resources to the school districts that need them most. Although no individual or administrative unit acts to deprive particular groups, the system as a whole does. Using Census figures, state and local tax records and information from the Illinois Board of Education, this…