The Youth Opportunity Grant program (YO) represented an innovative approach to improving education and employment opportunities for at-risk youth by targeting resources in high poverty areas and incorporating strategies that experts have identified as effective for serving this population. The Department of Labor (the Department) awarded 36 grants…

First, this report examines the level of public investment (from federal, state, and local school district sources) in children's growth and development by child age. It builds upon an earlier twelve-state report by examining public investment in nine additional states and the District of Columbia. This part describes overall per child investments…

Audits and inspections in the area of the Department's internal operations show that it must establish effective accountability for its contractors and employees. The work concluded during this reporting period shows inadequacies in oversight, monitoring and accountability by Department management and staff. A summary of audits and inspections…

Educators are under increasing pressure from policymakers and the public to demonstrate that educational resources are used in appropriate ways. This demand, coupled with an environment of increased standards and shrinking budgets, is a major challenge to rural, small, and low-income schools. This digest reviews contemporary research on resource…

The Center for Mental Health in Schools has explored new infrastructure mechanisms designed to ensure that schools pay more systematic attention to how they use resources for addressing barriers to student learning and promoting healthy development. This report highlights key infrastructure mechanisms for enhancing education supports and stresses…

Title VI provides federal funds to states under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This document describes Title VI programs and the use of funds in the Austin Independent School District (AISD), Texas for 2000-2001. The AISD allocation of $481,559 was based on the May 2000 projected school enrollment, including projected…

When voters approved Proposition 98 as an amendment to the California Constitution, they sought to guarantee public schools and community colleges a level of funding that would at least keep pace with growth in student population and the personal income of Californians and at best increase the amount schools receive. The calculation of the…

This paper discusses the current state of fiscal relations between the federal, state and local governments in the United States and suggests directions for improvement. The significant degree of fiscal autonomy of the states and, to a lesser extent, of local governments has had several beneficial effects, including the responsiveness of public…

This report summarizes the status of states' budgets at the end of fiscal year 1997. The year's strong national economy boosted tax revenues and helped to decrease welfare rolls. Unemployment at the end of 1997 was below 5 percent nationally and real GDP growth was 3.5 percent for the first 3 quarters of the year. These indicators translate into…

For fiscal year 1999, President Clinton is requesting $31.2 billion in discretionary budget authority for the U.S. Department of Education, an increase of $1.7 billion over the 1998 level. The budget is broken down into seven program areas: elementary and secondary education, bilingual and immigrant education, special education and rehabilitative…

Information that Congress and various agencies can use to plan, implement, and evaluate programs supported by more than 30 agencies is provided. This statement focuses on the amount and complexity of federal support for education and addresses the challenge of obtaining more and better information. Research indicates that six programs--Child…

This report suggests ways to improve the school staffing information gathered through the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) currently administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Obtaining better information on school staff can provide insights into the patterns of resource allocation in schools and the access of children…

Constitutional challenges to state statutory schema for distributing education dollars to local school districts has provided a study course of litigation in state court systems since the early 1970s. This paper is an analysis of 10 of these cases, which were ruled upon in the first half of the 1990s. The focus is on constitutional deficiency and…

This document reviews how performance indicators are currently being used in several Commonwealth countries the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, and identifies some of the issues associated with performance indicator development and application. It also examines whether there are any agreed upon "key", or common, indicators that…

This guide discusses how collections budgets are planned, built, defended, and implemented. Each topic is illustrated with sample budgets and allocations typical of academic and public libraries serving their respective communities. Step-by-step guidance is offered to administrators and boards for meeting patrons' needs while addressing today's…