This report examines the role of the state in ensuring access to advanced telecommunications technologies by all Minnesotans and explores viable policy alternatives. Recommendations fall into four categories: access, affordability and competition, training and skills, and local initiative. Concerning access, the goal is for all Minnesotans to have…

With federal funds accounting for only 7% of public elementary and secondary education revenue, funding responsibility for K-12 education is split primarily between state and local governments. Since the 1980s, state governments have generally assumed primary fiscal responsibility, with local governments supplying the rest of the necessary…

Since the University of California (UC) Board of Regents banned the consideration of race, ethnicity and gender in admissions, college outreach programs have been the primary vehicle of achieving diversity among the UC student body. Outreach programs constitute an array of tools and services that help improve the college preparedness and…

This report is a companion to "Recession, Retrenchment and Recovery: Higher Education Funding and Student Financial Aid" (ED502180). It provides profiles of individual states and their performance on a variety of measures used in the economic and fiscal analysis of the Recession, Retrenchment and Recovery project. The profiles describe the results…

During 1996-97 each of the three branches of Wisconsin State government--the judiciary, the executive, and the legislative--experienced substantial activity regarding educational finance policies. After describing Wisconsin's current school-finance system, this paper examines Wisconsin school finance based on the 1996-97 actions of the judiciary,…

This report provides longitudinal data on enrollments, finances, programs, and staff for the 16 campuses of the Wisconsin Technical College System, covering systemwide the period from 1988 to 1997. The following tables are provided: (1) headcount enrollment by aid categories of college parallel, postsecondary (i.e., associate degrees and…

This paper analyzes the negative effects on private colleges of state subsidies provided to state-run colleges, noting the increasing proportion of students attending public colleges and the closing of more than 300 private colleges between 1969-70 and 1992-93. It urges legislators to eliminate direct subsidies to universities, to require…

Colleges and universities are privatizing various institutional components and are seeking greater autonomy from state government. In defining privatization, the paper makes the distinction between privatizing and contracting, and notes six areas where a good or service can be owned or managed by the government or by the private sector: ownership…

The Native American Rights Fund seeks to "tribalize" formal education through developing tribal education laws and reforming state and national Indian education legislation. The Indian Education Legal Support Project advances Native American rights in education by emphasizing the legal rights of tribes to control the formal education of…

The Children At Risk program was created in Wisconsin in 1985 with the broad goal of reducing the number of students at risk of failing in or dropping out of school. The program requires all school districts to identify children at risk, including dropouts, truants, parents, or adjudicated delinquents, who are behind their age group in either…

This brief provides an overview of three recent state court cases in Alabama, Wyoming, and Ohio that uniquely address the constitutionality of state special education finance systems. In each case, the courts found the special education finance systems to be unconstitutional due to inequitable or inadequate funding for children with disabilities.…

State-level governance of community colleges has become increasingly common in the United States, with governance decisions affecting budget appropriations, rules on how appropriations can be spent, and the missions that colleges must strive to fulfill. The most common elements of state-level community college mission statements over the past 100…

This report highlights recent and projected economic trends that affect higher education, focusing on national economic conditions, government support for higher education, students' ability to pay for college, and labor market trends. It found that the U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), is projected to grow at a…

Despite the potential of technology, it is clear that the benefits of computers, multimedia and telecommunications technology are not as widespread in schools as could be hoped. To ensure that all students and teachers have access to technology, the issue of comprehensive, statewide implementation must be addressed. This cost model for…

Vermont's Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1997 (Act 60) has attracted attention because of its funding and quality components, and the highly publicized responses to its implementation. A key feature is its "recapture" provision in which property-wealthy towns contribute to a state educational fund that helps support education in…