Funding public education represents a massive state and local effort. Spending on education is second only to Medicaid in terms of the overall state budget and it consumes the largest share of local tax revenues. Between state and local taxes, Massachusetts taxpayers spent nearly $11 billion to operate the Commonwealth's PK-12 education system in…

When people talk about school district efficiency, their first thoughts are about financial management. Are districts balancing their budgets, paying bills on time, and maximizing their revenues? This report takes a closer look at financial management in California school districts. The report is a summary of the 2006 research study, "School…

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) commissioned this paper to help policy leaders and decision makers understand the impact of selected state financial aid programs on students' choices--choices of which college to attend, where to attend college, and even whether to attend college at all. As the paper shows, states…

Every day, millions of three- and four-year-old children attend early education programs. The range of early childhood education program models includes, among others, state-funded pre-k, Head Start, and child care programs. Children attend these programs in public schools, private schools, colleges, businesses, community-based centers, and homes.…

Red states, blue states. Maybe in politics there are differences, but when it comes to progressive transfer policies, the color-line division disappears. From the Northeast to the mid-Atlantic states to the Florida peninsula, across the Great Plains to the Southwest and on to California, state public higher education systems have made, and…

This report examines the current role of states in supporting school-facilities improvements. Specifically, the study gathered information about state actions to provide funding, technical assistance, and compliance review to school districts. The report also looked at the degree to which states collect and maintain information on the condition of…

This newsletter provides current information on the state of learning resources centers and libraries in California community colleges. The October 1996 issue provides the LRACCC's annual report for 1995-96, describing the Association's membership, publications, budget, and activities for the year. This issue also includes newsbriefs from 12…

This memorandum describes the calculations used to figure the instructional subsidy for postsecondary education in Ohio, focusing on why the model operates as it does and the implications of the current funding model. The two principle factors in the instructional subsidy model are institutional enrollments and actual costs. The model begins with…

In May 1991, the Florida Legislature directed the State Board of Community Colleges to develop a method to equalize the base funding of community colleges, including an appropriate cost differential equation. As a result, an allocation process of legislative appropriations was developed which supported the relative priorities of each college from…

The ability of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) to address both educational equality and financial equity in the Kentucky public education system is examined in this paper. Following an overview of the conditions that facilitated the act's passage in 1990, the next section discusses the philosophical background of the concepts of…

The Illinois Task Force on School Finance was created in 1990 to devise a plan to ensure adequate state funding for all school districts at greater levels. The task force's plan for 1993 provides for funding of an adequate education and creates a more equitable distribution of educational revenues. The first part of this report presents an…

Questions about inequities in educational funding were raised in New Jersey when the legislature enacted the state's second major education-finance-reform law, the Quality Education Act of 1990 (QEA). This paper describes changes in revenues, expenditures, and programs in 11 diverse New Jersey school districts during the first year of…

This issue brief presents projections for current expenditures in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The following areas are examined: the historical association between the economy and the level of expenditures; the importance of funds from state and federal governments; the effect of the next decade's anticipated…

This document is a handbook on school organization and finance in Washington State. It encompasses legislation passed during the 1990 and 1991 legislative sessions and school district fiscal data through the 1990-91 school year. The guide attempts to simplify the complex subject of school finance for use by educators, policy makers, and the…

This report analyzes revenues from state governments and combined revenues from state government and state university sources for each state, as reported to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by public broadcasting licenses in the Annual Financial Report survey, Fiscal Year 1997. All revenue amounts contained in this report include cash,…