Since Minnesota passed the first charter school law in 1991, charter schools have become one of the most prominent school reforms in the U.S. While charter schools educate a small portion of public school enrollments, their existence has prompted various responses from traditional public school (TPS) districts. This paper explores education…

Many argue that the California Master Plan for Higher Education is no longer effective in meeting the needs of students. This policy analysis assesses the impact of California higher education policy on the state's community colleges that are considered minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Using longitudinal data to determine how the metrics have…

The success of policy interventions is frequently stymied by the inability to induce take-up in target populations. In this article, I show that local advertising in combination with small financial lotteries increases the likelihood that low-income students apply for and receive state aid. I isolate causal impacts by estimating the change in…

Lawsuits challenging state methods for funding public schools have been launched in 46 of the 50 states, and in recent years they have been extraordinarily successful. Since 1989, plaintiffs have prevailed in over 65 percent of the final liability decisions in cases based on "adequacy claims"--assertions that all students have a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between state funding along with tuition and baccalaureate graduation rates as well as degrees awarded at 4-year public institutions in the State of Texas. The goal of this study was to identify possible trends which may exist regarding institutions, institutional governance structures,…

This study aims to develop a list of technological enhancements to a financial aid analytics application (F3A) designed to assist higher education leaders in gaining actionable insights for decision-making with grants optimization. This research utilizes the Design Science Research framework which highlights the design and evaluation of an IT…

There is a substantial literature that assesses the effects of tax-exporting capacities on the tax structures and aggregate spending levels that state governments choose to implement, but no work exists that isolates the effects of state tax exporting on higher education spending. Using state-level data for 1989, 1995, 2002, and 2007, we estimate…

As explored in the first report in this series, the past decade has been a period of tremendous growth for UMass. This growth has taken many forms, including expansion of the school's capital facilities, increased student enrollment, and a growing national profile and public mission. These developments have resulted in innumerable successes for…

This study examines the effect of state need-based financial aid on crucial student outcome measures at 4-year institutions. In particular, I seek to analyze differential effects across income groups. To account for potential endogeneity bias and the nested data structure, this study employs a propensity score matching, multilevel modeling…

A significant body of work on the economics of education establishes links between specific interventions, such as class size reduction or increased teacher pay, and educational attainment (often measured by graduation rates). Many of these interventions rely on increased funding, so the current study builds upon previous work by analyzing the…

What happens to public colleges and universities when confidence in the value of public institutions wanes? Nothing good, to judge from two new books whose titles telegraph the tale: "The Great Mistake," by Christopher Newfield and "Austerity Blues," by Michael Fabricant and Stephen Brier. This article discusses how the authors…

Higher education governance today is a complex endeavor that demands dynamic, creative, and thoughtful communication, actions, and leadership. Given the continually diminishing level of state funding for higher education, leaders at all levels should be equipped to generate and lobby for funds internally (within their university) and externally…

America's diverse higher education landscape includes more than 700 four-year nonprofit colleges and universities that focus on baccalaureate education. These private nondoctoral (PND) institutions are located in almost every state and collectively enroll about 1.6 million students and award nearly 150,000 degrees annually, with the majority of…

Concerned with low on-time graduation rates, state lawmakers continue to turn to outcomes-based funding (OBF) as one policy approach to support postsecondary degree attainment and workforce goals. Policymakers have also been confronted with constituent complaints about student debt loads, course schedules and academic programs that force students…

This First Look report presents data on public elementary and secondary education revenues and expenditures at the local education agency (LEA) or school district level for fiscal year (FY) 2022. Specifically, this report includes the following types of school district finance data: (1) revenue, current expenditure, and capital outlay expenditure…