Designed for use by teachers, school administrators, board members, legislators, and lay citizens, this report is intended to be a source document for obtaining a basic understanding of Illinois school finance. It explains the sources and amounts of funds available for pre-kindergarten through postsecondary programs administered by the Illinois…

This dynamic approach to a state plan for library services places clear responsibility upon the state library, the profession, and library users to monitor and evaluate library services of all types, to communicate the needs of state residents, and to perfect the delivery of quality services within the limits of cost effectiveness. While the plan…

People United for Rural Education (PURE), organized in Iowa in 1977, now has about 3,000 members in 23 states and 3 foreign countries. PURE's purpose is to ensure the survival of rural schools and to promote rural life as a viable and credible way of life. One of the organization's most difficult tasks is to counteract urban attitudes towards…

Perspectives on accountability in higher education are considered. It is suggested that educational targeting be undertaken: a coalition of planners, financers, and deliverers of postsecondary education should establish goals to meet perceived societal needs. Out of these goal statements, priorities for state funding could be established and…

In July 1979, the Florida legislature commissioned a comprehensive evaluation of the state's educational fixed capital outlay (EFCO) program, through which the state funded all capital projects at all levels of public education. The study, completed for the 1980 legislative session, comprised 18 topical reports including EFCO funding recipients,…

Recurrent education may be defined as formal education provided outside of the traditional academic context for the purposes of: (1) continuing education in professional and vocational fields; (2) part-time instruction toward an academic or vocational degree; and (3) personal or social development. In California, while state policy encourages…

In 1979 the Michigan State legislature allocated $3.2 million for kindergarten through twelfth grade school staff development programs (Public Act 94, Article 9, Section 97). The emphasis in the legislation was to establish a competitive market for the purchase and utilization of resources to identify needs and provide skill development for school…

A nine-year evaluation of the effects of Illinois' 1973 school finance reforms on educational equity indicated that the degree of equity increased from 1972 until about 1977 but then decreased through 1981. The researchers measured educational equity in terms of both wealth (or fiscal) neutrality and the variation among school districts in…

A random sample of adults in Alabama were surveyed in 1977 to determine their opinions and attitudes about postsecondary education. A 51-item questionnaire was designed to reflect public feeling about several areas of postsecondary education, including finance; governance; faculty; teaching, research, and service functions; and admissions and…

The need for states to identify and appropriately fund the special needs of the small/rural community college is discussed in terms of eight issues: (1) certain costs which are required for operation of institutions regardless of size and which are unrelated to programs (e.g., library, grounds maintenance, meeting recommendations of accrediting…

A generic, descriptive system dynamics model is presented for a California community college district single campus. It provides an analytical tool for community college administrators who must consider the dynamic effects of policy changes on the system as a whole, rather than on isolated components of the system, when corrective financial…

California's community college system has depended heavily on property taxes, which have been reduced almost 60% by the recent Jarvis-Gann amendment. A statewide study sought some indication of responses to these constraints that might occur in community colleges. Summaries of budget reductions and other actions taken were compiled in 1978 for six…

The special needs of older adults in relation to community colleges were studied with the intent to (1) identify Southern California community colleges which have a special program for older adults, (2) identify and report the characteristics of selected programs, and (3) delineate the effect of Proposition 13 and under-financing for programs. Of…

The problem addressed in this study is the identification of economic benefits generated by the 17 Maryland community colleges, and their associated costs. Figures for fiscal year 1977 are used to assess the statewide impact of the community colleges on the business sector, in terms of total impact of expenditures by the colleges and their staffs,…

School finance reform has reflected, over the last 10 years, the changing relationship between education and state government. Emerging from the case histories presented here is the conclusion that, gradually, the barriers separating education policymakers from general government have been lowered. At the same time, the fragmentation among…