School districts in the United States often borrow on the municipal bond market to pay for capital projects. Districts serving economically disadvantaged communities tend to receive lower credit ratings and pay higher interest rates. To remedy this problem, 24 states have established credit enhancement programs that promise to repay district debt…

The 2024-2025 AASA Superintendent Salary & Benefits Study marks the thirteenth consecutive edition of this report. The national survey tracked the demographics, salary, benefits, and other elements of the employment agreements of school superintendents throughout the country. This year's study results are based on 2,077 complete responses. The…

In this forthcoming book chapter, the authors provide an in-depth description of the history and current issues pertaining to public school finance in Washington State, including how recent federal stimulus funding impacted resource levels. The state uses a resource-based funding model, where the amount of funds each school district receives is…

We present an overview of spending adequacy among individual K-12 school districts in the U.S. Our results are from a new database of over 12,000 public school districts that allows users to compare each district's actual per-pupil spending levels to estimates of adequate spending levels--i.e., spending required to achieve the common goal of…

"Making the Grade analyzes the condition of public school funding in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The current report presents a picture of school funding in 2020-2021, the first full school year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the most recent data available. The report ranks and grades each state on three measures to answer the…

This paper uses data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to study various input data and their effect on student outcomes. The data pulled were related to school district, local, and personal wealth; student demographics; classrooms and classroom teachers. A multi-factor regression was then completed to assess which…

We examine the relationship between district level student achievement and teacher average salary in Ohio from academic year 2013-14 to academic year 2018-19. Utilizing panel data, the following district level characteristics were controlled for: average teacher experience, average teacher degree-level, student socioeconomic status, race, student…

Every school district in New York spends more per student than the national average. Yet, there are variations among districts -- largely depending on communities' relative wealth to help fund their school district. State aid attempts to equalize local wealth capacity among districts, which is evident by the fact that more than 72 percent of the…

This research applies critical race theory to investigate Michigan's system for funding public schools, focusing on structural racism and discrimination embedded in education finance laws, housing policies, and residential and educational segregation. We find that the average Black student receiving free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) receives $411…

Ohio schools will go backward under Governor Kasich's funding proposal, which does not keep up with inflation. Funding for the Ohio Department of Education from all state sources, including the General Revenue Fund, casino revenues and tax reimbursements, increases by just 3.2 percent in the governor's proposal for fiscal years (FYs) 2018 and 2019…

Resource exposure is believed to be a key mechanism linking patterns of racial segregation and student outcomes during the Brown v. Board of Education era. Decades later, literature suggests that past progress on school desegregation may have stalled, raising concerns about resource equity and associated student outcomes. Are recent trends in…

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…

Research suggests students learn better in classrooms that are modern, comfortable, and safe, but the age and condition of school facilities varies widely across the state. According to a recent estimate, California school districts need to spend between $3.1 billion and $4.1 billion annually just to maintain their existing facilities. Further,…

This study examines how California's system of school facility finance, and the level and distribution of funding for K-12 school facilities, has changed over the decade since 2006. This report addresses five broad questions related to the way California finances its school facility needs: (1) How has California's system of school facility finance…

Since the implementation of IDEA in 1975, as spending on education has continued to grow, a large portion of that spending has been dedicated to students with special needs. This study uses a panel dataset of local and intermediate school districts to examine the complex special education funding and delivery scheme in the State of Michigan. Using…