Labeled a "citizen assessment," this study evaluates the effects of Massachusetts 2-1/2 during the first year after its enactment. The law limited taxes and changed laws relating to school budgets. The study focused on two areas: (1) the effect of loss of fiscal autonomy on school budgeting procedures, and (2) the changes in school…

This booklet for trustees of institutions of higher education offers guidelines for strategic financial decisions required in light of the financial challenges higher education faces in the 1990s and beyond. "Strategic response" is defined as a decision that requires changing a major policy, program, or practice and involves some risk. Five…

Survey forms sent to a random sample of 5,271 school board members elicited responses from 1,096 (21 percent) board members. Lists the demographics of school board service, the specific budget cuts board members made last year, and choices they would make if further cuts were needed in the current budget. (MLF)

A six-step plan that helps manage school decline is presented. (DCS)

This study examines the results of decremental state budgeting on Minnesota elementary and secondary education during the 1981-83 biennium, a period of sudden fiscal crisis. Using the fiscal reports of various departments of Minnesota State government and interviews with state officials, the author narrates the sequence of revenue shortfalls and…

Financial pressures are forcing the closure of some teaching hospitals and retrenchment using such strategies as development of ambulatory care and satellite facilities, merging with or acquiring other hospitals, and shortening patient hospital stays. A table lists revenues and profit margins for the 20 largest university-owned teaching hospitals.…

This essay examines the administration of public multi-campus universities, focusing in particular on central administration and the State University of New York (SUNY) system and on responses to the need for fiscal austerity. Before treatment of the main topic begins, the essay offers a look at five reasons for the suspicion and resentment that…

Using data which commences with the 1977-78 university fiscal year, and ending with the most current year for which information is available, the financial position of Ontario universities was assessed. The budgetary priority assigned to Ontario universities has declined steadily and substantially over the past 14 years despite a consistent growth…

This Congressional report confirms the increasing tragedy of child abuse and neglect in the United States and documents the decline in resources available to serve those children. It is based on a survey conducted of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine what information was available about the extent of child abuse and neglect,…

This study traces the 5-year effects of California's Proposition 13 on the state's "Big Eight" school districts' secondary curriculum. Personnel and parent representatives agree on influences behind curriculum change patterns. First, teacher reductions have led to larger and fewer sections of classes, decreasing students' scheduling…

As a consequence of declining enrollment and decreasing public school revenues, coupled with cost increases linked to state and federal mandated programs, collective bargaining obligations, rising energy costs, and a larger proportion of high cost (disadvantaged) students, administrators are faced with a compelling need for cutbacks in…

Conceptualizing high local fiscal stress as a variable which includes low fiscal capacity, high local tax effort and high local need requires building a typology reflecting this conceptualization. This study builds such a typology for 166 counties in the northeastern United States and examines the effects of variables taken from a series of…

Includes excerpts from a 1986 report on educational funding for different provincial and local school systems in China. Asserts that many local governments have been able to improve school buildings and teacher training. Concludes with five suggestions for increasing educational funding at the local level. (CFR)

Due to enrollment decline, reductions in federal support, and declining state support because of a constricted economy, growing inflation, expanding government and legal requirements, and the loss of public confidence in education, the Portland School District (Oregon) developed a short-term contingency budget planning process in fiscal 1980-81 to…

College and university trustees and administrators are employing various strategies to deal with financial challenges. These fall generally into five categories: (1) attracting additional revenues to help close the gap between resources and expenses; (2) reassessing tuition and financial aid policies to alter the size or mix of the student body;…