Family members are a child's first and most important teachers. A growing body of research demonstrates that when families are actively engaged in their child's learning, children are better prepared for school and achieve at higher levels. Increased participation by families in pre-kindergarten programs has also been linked to greater academic…

The economic and noneconomic benefits of higher education, both private and social are undeniable. The higher the average education level of the population, the better off people are. College is not for everyone, but college ought to be possible for anyone who wants to try and who has taken the steps to help themselves succeed. State-funded…

On January 10, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released his proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year. State revenues for the 18 months covering the last half of 2007-08 and 2008-09 are projected to be nearly $16 billion below planned expenditures. The budget seeks to close this shortfall by cutting 2008-09 funding for most programs by 10%…

Public higher education's changing financial environment is well documented. Facing shrinking budgets, competing priorities, public resistance to increasing state levies, and prohibitions on deficit spending, state legislators more and more often find themselves in the unenviable position of debating the relative essentiality of state services,…

Performance funding in higher education ties state funding directly to institutional performance on specific indicators, such as rates of retention, graduation, and job placement. One of the great puzzles about performance funding is that it has been both popular and unstable. Between 1979 and 2007, 26 states enacted it, but 14 of those states…

In September 2007, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) officially launched the Student Achievement Initiative, a system-wide policy to reward colleges for improvements in student achievement. Developed by a task force comprised of State Board members, college trustees, presidents, and faculty representatives,…

Historically, tuition and mandatory fee rates of all North Dakota University System (NDUS) institutions (except the 2-year campuses) have been less than their regional counterparts. Average tuition and fee increases at NDUS institutions were significantly higher than their regional counterparts in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07, as a result, the gap…

To improve performance, Connecticut must: (1) Increase student access and success in all types of postsecondary education (4-year, 2-year, training), particularly in critical workforce fields; (2) Reach consensus on what constitutes a "college-ready" curriculum for high school students; (3) Improve college graduation rates; and (4)…

No empirical studies have attempted to explain why states invest differentially in their research and in their non-research universities, although these differences hold important implications for students, postsecondary systems, and society. Deploying a form of hierarchical-linear modeling, our study examines across-state variation in state…

A lot of students have benefited from part of the $27-million in federal and state grant money that Del Mar College has received since it opened a centralized office for grants and sponsored research in 2005. Del Mar, which has about 11,000 credit-seeking students, is one of a growing number of community colleges that make up for shrinking state…

This study seeks to inform the debate over a proposal in Nebraska to give tax credits for contributions to organizations that provide scholarships to K-12 private schools. The study constructs a model to determine the fiscal impact of tax-credit scholarships on the state and on local school districts. The author estimates the impact that…

Tennessee needs to continuously increase its degree productivity by four percent every year from now until 2025. In the midst of this need for increased degree production, the state's current economic realities indicate public institutions will receive little to no new state appropriated revenues for the foreseeable future. The Master Plan Annual…

In 2000, the California State Legislature passed the Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act, which authorized funding for county juvenile-justice programs and designated the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) (formerly named the Board of Corrections) the administrator of funding. A 2001 California Senate bill extended the funding and changed the…

State universities in Michigan argue that they have been starved for money and that falling real appropriations from the state legislature have jeopardized the quality of higher education. They contend that this has resulted in a loss of competitiveness for Michigan at a time when the state faces economic stagnation caused by globalization's…

Many more factors figure into the cost of a bachelor's degree than just tuition. Depending on the type of college or university, as well as its level of selectivity, taxpayers may contribute a substantial tax subsidy or, in rare cases, receive a moderate net "profit" per bachelor's degree. It is important to consider all of the costs and…