We examine changes in public funding and student access, and the role resource capacity plays in access to higher education by students in two public universities in Africa namely the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the University of Ghana, Ghana. The public funding of higher education and student access in South Africa and Ghana…

English learners (ELs) are one of the fastest-growing student groups in the U.S. K-12 system, making up about one in 10 students enrolled in public schools nationwide. Despite research showing that EL students need more resources and supports to be successful in school, funding at the federal, state, and local levels to provide those additional…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the intersection of social class inequality and education policy through the lens of an analysis of the experiences and effects of state, local, and federal policy meant to engage communities around the use of federal funds to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. The author intends to…

Understanding how urban school districts allocate their education funds can help school leaders create more effective budgeting strategies and provide a basis for advocating for additional funding when necessary. This report provides an overview of how urban districts distribute their financial resources, highlights key areas of spending, and…

School finance debates frequently turn on two crucial questions: (1) How much do state and local governments spend on K-12 education?; and (2) How are education dollars distributed across jurisdictions? This focus makes sense because the answers to these questions determine how well states are able to provide an adequate, equal education for all…

Background: The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; 2015) constituted a reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and replaced the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. ESSA, although still recognizing the need of standardized testing, diverged from NCLB by transferring a significant amount of power over…

This study applies resource dependence theory to address the question of how the critical resource dependence relationship emerges in the context of a university's performance agreement. This study focuses on two Nordic universities that have adopted performance agreements while simultaneously using strong performance-based state funding. Resource…

In 2014, RTI International, with the support of Advance CTE, conducted research on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, which established how states allocated categorical funds for CTE during the academic year 2011-12 and the amounts of those allocations. By returning to this topic 10 years later, Advance CTE seeks to understand how CTE is…

Between March 2020 and March 2021, Congress allocated $189.5 billion for a new Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund. The arrival of this federal aid was a lifeline for schools attempting to serve students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding was distributed in a very different manner, and with very different rules and…

Troubled by the inequities in competitive grantmaking, we use critical quantitative methods to analyze the FY2023 federal academic earmarks as a potential mechanism for racialized change work. Specifically, we ask: To what extent does Congress distribute academic earmarks in ways that reinforce or weaken the racialized stratification of resources…

English learners (ELs) are a fast-growing and diverse student population in the U.S. K-12 public school system. Representing more than 400 languages spoken, EL students bring rich linguistic and cultural traditions to their communities. To better understand education finance equity for EL students in the Southeast, this analysis focuses on nine…

In this report, the authors propose and simulate a framework for a new foundation formula approach to distributing federal K-12 education aid. This proposal, with full funding and compliance, would provide every school district with the estimated revenues necessary to reach the goal of average national outcomes in mathematics and reading. The…

More than 90% of IDEA funding is allocated to Part B, Grants to States (Section 611), which contains funding and policy provisions related to special education for children ages 3 to 21. The influence of federal Part B, Grants to States funding on state and local funding decisions is twofold: 1) it links eligibility for IDEA grants to compliance…

The Trump administration may push for a shift away from the current formula-driven federal K-12 education funding toward more flexible block grants -- part of a broader effort to significantly scale back the U.S. Department of Education and direct more education policy decision-making to the states. If Congress authorizes this new flexibility,…

This critical analysis delves into the allocation and utilization of public expenditure in education across all levels in Bhutan, including primary, secondary, and higher education. The study aims to provide valuable insights into how public funds are distributed and used within Bhutan's education system. By conducting this analysis, we seek to…