Last summer, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a New Business Item to explore retrenchment: "The NEA shall make a statistical study on the effect of significant faculty retrenchment at community colleges on future faculty cuts" (NBI 78, 2022). ASA Research (ASA) conducted exploratory research in an attempt to identify…

Because states typically fund districts based on student counts, districts reporting shrinking enrollment worry about shrinking dollars as well. The seemingly obvious quick fix is for states to hold districts financially harmless for some or all of their enrollment loss. But states have many factors to weigh when deciding whether or how to go down…

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 article describes how community colleges take on major changes as they undergo complete organizational redesign and streamlining of programming and services in the face of multiple challenges.

The "double whammy" of state appropriations cuts and sharply rising enrollments have challenged public colleges and universities for more than a decade. State colleges--the little-studied "missing middle" between research universities and community colleges--suffered some of the deepest budget cuts and steepest enrollment…

Just as the recession has taken a toll in other states, New Jersey state budget coffers are shriveling up as public colleges and other state-supported services are asked to do more with less. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's slashing of $173 million from public colleges and universities has drawn the ire of higher education leaders, educators and…

Like many libraries, Seton Hall University Libraries has suffered budget cuts that forced a reduction in serial subscriptions. As science librarian, I report on my efforts to streamline subscriptions and to address the question "Why are science journals so expensive?" Our science journals are significantly more expensive than journals in…

American public higher education is in trouble. Besieged by declining state and Federal support for more than 30 years, public colleges and universities are facing a "game-changing" set of challenges that threaten to alter the very nature of the institutions. As two recessions withered state budgets in the first decade of the 21st…

Almost every day, it seems, school districts coping with budget shortfalls are announcing freezes or cuts to administrative salaries and benefits as part of the solution, a trend that began during the past school year and is becoming more prevalent around the country. Salaries, which account for more than 70 percent of some school budgets, have…

In 1987, the first Commission on the Future of Independent Higher Education charted a path for independent colleges and universities in New Jersey. Many changes have taken place in New Jersey higher education in the 15 years since this "Boyer" report was issued, and in 2000, a new Commission was formed to review progress since the 1987…

The Performance Assessment Review system links training to employee performance and development. The system forces supervisors to specify training to remedy individual employee needs. Through the aggregation of data, the system also provides a tool for the assessment of broad training needs across agencies and job classes. (Author/CH)

Looks at how the Reagan administration's proposed federal budget cuts may impact on the amount of money New Jersey will receive under various federal programs, including block grants, the Elementary Secondary Education Act titles, the Child Nutrition Act, and guaranteed student loans. (SJL)

This anthology of articles investigates and analyzes problems related to declining enrollment with emphasis on the state of New Jersey. It is intended to provide assistance to local New Jersey school districts in managing and preparing for enrollment decline. The first chapter provides an overview of declining enrollments in New Jersey and touches…

This analysis is the fifth of a series of seven reports on the ways that the urban fiscal crisis has affected children. Children's services in New Jersey have not suffered unduly from recent Federal budget cuts, but the combination of depressed revenues, continuing inflation, state aid reductions and Federal budget cuts have had a negative…

Key issues for public higher education and reaction of various states to deal with the problems caused by fiscal constraints are addressed. The following four problems are considered: (1) enrollment decline; (2) enrollment fluctuation, regardless of the enrollment trend; (3) changes in the student body composition; and (4) budgetary reductions in…