The purpose of this article was to present the results of a study that analyzed Pennsylvania local school boards' taxing authority, pre- and post-enactment of Special Session Act 1, "The Taxpayer Relief Act," in 2006, in terms of its percent share of school districts' total budget in order to better understand the impact of the new…

Increased attention to proposed federal early childhood education (ECE) legislation has sparked a debate on what the future holds for state-funded ECE systems. This brief explores how the goal of universal preschool is being shaped by the federal agenda and examines state programs in various stages of development. President Obama's Preschool for…

This case, inspired by a real school district scenario, was developed for use in a graduate-level course in school finance. James Spencer had just been selected as the new superintendent of a low-income, 400-student, rural school district in need of many capital improvements. The previous superintendent had refused to hold a bond election because…

This article examines voting results for school district budgets in New York from 2003-2010. Despite annual local property tax increases, 91.9% of proposed school district budgets were approved by voters during the period examined. Using data from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and the American Community Survey (ACS), several…

In the past, school and college administrators relied heavily on advice from colleagues, largely because they had an internal orientation toward their work. As the social, political, and economic influence of external forces became more apparent, they learned to value input from a range of stakeholders. Robert Taft, former governor of Ohio, is a…

This article examines the first regional governance reform in public education, created in the Omaha, Nebraska metropolitan area in 2007. The legislation creating this regional reform, which is called the Learning Community, established a regional governing body, the Learning Community Coordinating Council, consisting of an elected 21-member…

The relationship between components of the local school district report card, school district typology, and the outcome of public school tax levy requests were examined in this study. A correlation research design was used to measure the relationship between the independent variables (performance index, average yearly progress, value added,…

Applying a Multiple Streams framework, the article documents the development and ultimate undoing of what became known as the national sales tax plan for education. The authors identify four factors that coalesced to lead the Nixon administration to propose replacing local property taxes with a federal value-added tax to finance K-12 education.…

Anticipating a substantially larger voter turnout in the upcoming election, district officials needed to probe--more precisely than in past tax elections--exactly what demographic groups would most likely go to the polls and support the tax proposal. Message testing and voter targeting became critical components in building a foundation for…

Drawing from state administrative data and surveys of superintendents in Ohio, this mixed methods study examined factors associated with voters' approval of local school levies. Utilizing binomial logistic regression, this study found that new levies and poverty rates were significantly associated with a decrease in the likelihood of passage.…

This study investigates what factors are associated with the likelihood of passing school facility construction bonds by local district election. It uses statewide data from Michigan, 1998-2006, to examine the outcome of 789 bond elections in terms of the following ten variables: amount of the bond request; district enrollment; district locale;…

This study examines the use of Schools of Choice throughout Michigan over the last decade. Nearly 100,000 Michigan students use Schools of Choice to attend a school outside of the district in which they live. Participation has grown steadily, with enrollment growing by 144 percent over the past 10 years. This study finds that students enter…

Using research conducted by the federal government's own finance department, social policy groups released the report, "Paying for Canada: Perspectives on Public Finance and National Programs." It showed that deliberate government policy to reduce taxation levels for some of the most economically advantaged groups in Canada had resulted…

Many school districts are in need of a successful plan of action for school district referendums. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the perceived effectiveness between factors and strategies surrounding referendums and the passage of those measures meant to improve school funding and facilities. The findings from Johnson and…

Michigan's state-run school system is the largest and most expensive government service taxpayers support. It employs more than 350,000 people who work in one of the more than 4,100 different entities. The total amount this system expends each year adds up to more than $20 billion. Given the enormity and complexity of the system, it's no surprise…