Successful investors seeking returns, animals foraging for food, and pilots controlling aircraft all must take into account how their current decisions will impact their future standing. One challenge facing decision makers is that options that appear attractive in the short-term may not turn out best in the long run. In this paper, we explore…

This paper designs a new equalization-aid formula based on fiscal gaps of local communities. When states are in transition to a new local aid formula, the issue of whether and how to hold existing aid harmless poses a challenge. The authors show that some previous studies and the formulas derived from them give differential weights to existing and…

This study analyzes changes over time in long-lasting state performance funding systems for higher education. It addresses two research questions: First, in what ways have long-lasting systems changed over time in funding levels, indicators used to allocate funds, and measures used for those indicators? Second, what political actors, actions, and…

Low college enrollment rates among low-income students may stem from a combination of credit constraints, low academic skill, and low-quality schools. Recent Massachusetts data allow the first use of school district fixed effects in the analysis of credit constraints, leading to four findings. First, low-income students in Massachusetts have lower…

"Alternate location schooling" ("yidi banxue"), a special measure adopted in China to advance ethnic minority education and especially basic education, adheres to the principle of providing focused educational support in Tibet and Xinjiang and giving consideration to education in ethnic minority regions nationwide. Since the…

In January of 2007, freezing temperatures destroyed citrus and vegetable crops in California. By May 2007, more than 9,000 freeze-related unemployment applications had been fled. Through face-to-face interviews, this study documents the experience of 63 farmworkers to find out how they survived the freeze and accessed services. Findings revealed…

This report analyzes data for secondary special education students in Washington who left high school during the 2013-14 school year. These data were collected by the state starting on June 1, 2015, from all 233 districts with high schools: 230 districts, two state schools, and one educational service agency (a collection of 27 small districts…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda seeking to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal, and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, it is also…

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Statewide Survey provides policymakers, the media, and the public with objective, advocacy-free information on the perceptions, opinions, and public policy preferences of California residents. This is the 141st PPIC Statewide Survey in a series that was inaugurated in April 1998 and has generated a…

New York City (NYC) is home to the largest school district in the U.S., with over one million students and more than 1,600 schools. While it is only one of approximately seven hundred school districts in New York State (NYS), the city educates about one-third of the state's students. In recent work examining school finance during Mayor Bloomberg's…

In 1960, the State of California adopted a Master Plan for Higher Education which was a three tiered plan intended to channel students according to their ability to either the University of California, the California State University or the California community colleges and a plan which limited the doctoral and research missions to the University…

In the spring of 2008 the authors surveyed members of the American Education Finance Association (AEFA) to gain insight into their views on education policy issues. The results summarize opinions of this broad group of education researchers and practitioners, providing AEFA members and education leaders with access to views that may be helpful as…

Public universities are not for-profit businesses with an easy-to-understand bottom line: their financial reports are not designed to convey information to the public fully or to reflect all the costs of teaching and research. Financial reports do track every dollar in accordance with the accounting rules required by auditors, but they do not…

How have college and university-based archives and special collections fared over the past few years in the midst of an historically grim economic downturn? The authors conducted in-depth interviews with directors of 13 archival repositories at state universities and private colleges in the Appalachian region of Virginia, West Virginia, North…

Adequate funding has become a critical issue for institutions of higher education, affecting outcomes such as accessibility, affordability, and quality of education. The recent economic recession has been detrimental for state funding, resulting in budget cuts for higher education in a majority of states. Overall, state funding has not kept pace…