Explores equity issues related to the funding of urban schools. Data suggest that poverty level is more closely tied to spending differences than minority status. Federal and state funding formulas have brought per-student spending in most schools close to the national average, although high-income areas continue to enjoy higher per-pupil…

The education problems in New York City (and a number of other jurisdictions that face court financing challenges) are real and important. Many people would indeed be willing to put more money into New York City schools (or any poorly performing school for that matter) if they had any reason to believe that students' achievement would improve…

This document describes a procedural alternative to current practice predicated on a critical analysis of the literature concerning the funding of public institutions of higher education. The document is partitioned into five sections. The first section describes the development of the formula concept. The next section describes how funding…

This document presents funding proposals from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education for the 1994-95 Fiscal Year. Individual sections present the following: (1) executive summary of the Unified Budget Recommendations; (2) the unified budget recommendation with program detail on 1992-93 and 1993-94 appropriations and 1994-95 requests, regional…

The New Jersey State government could reduce pupil transportation aid payments to local school districts by between $35 million and $50 million by eliminating support for questionable expenditures and by using the funding formula adopted in the Quality Education Act of 1990. This report describes how these dollar savings can be achieved. The major…

Budgeting and budget planning in higher education are considered, and the long-standing debate concerning whether budgeting is largely a technical or a political exercise is reviewed in this monograph. The roles of various participants in the budgeting process and the form of their participation, with emphasis on centralization of authority in the…

This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the Iowa Community College Funding Formula Task Force. The first section contains a list of guiding principles of state aid to the community colleges. These include: providing Iowa citizens with access to educational opportunities and services; having a balance of state aid, local property…

The South Australian State Department of Education, Training and Employment allocates funding to schools in much the way that the literature suggests is a generic basis for funding schools. This includes per school base funding, per student funding for all students, additional per student allocations based on year levels, and additional per…

The Oregon Quality Education Model (QEM) was developed by the state to identify the fundamental requirements and costs for a quality education that meets Oregon's academic standards. It will determine the funding of Oregon schools. Among the assumptions upon which the QEM is built were that elementary school enrollment is 340 students, middle…

This paper reports on outcomes of community college programs monitored by the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC). The document covers the following WCCC objectives: (1) Study of tuition rates for the community colleges; (2) Negotiation of contracts and provision of financial support for administrative computing system components and…

Massachusetts' public education system has a long history of excellence and high regard. Recently, a declining economy, changed demographics, and a conservative government have placed the commonwealth's schools in crisis. This article describes recent state educational reforms, particularly funding and programmatic initiatives, highlighting 1985…

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the centerpiece of the Clinton administration's education reform program, provides a fascinating case study of the challenges facing an activist administration in trying to craft federal legislation that can provide national direction and leadership in a highly decentralized education system. Goals 2000…

A Comparable Wage Index (CWI) is an attractive mechanism for measuring geographic variations in the cost of education. A CWI measures uncontrollable variations in educator pay by observing systematic variations in the earnings of comparable workers who are not educators. Together, the 2000 census and the Occupational Employment Statistics survey…

State education agency personnel in 48 states were surveyed regarding current financing practices that would positively affect small school districts. One-half of the states were found to currently provide some type of additional operating revenue to small schools or school districts through pupil weighting, identification as geographically…

The nature and extent of restraing imposed by state and federal funding formulas, guidelines, and regulations on emerging, innovative, nontraditional postsecondary educational programs was assessed. Interviews were conducted with administrators of several innovative programs. In addition, a questionnaire was mailed to over 300 nontraditional…