For more than a decade, education reformers have admired the achievements of the Edmonton Public Schools in Canada, and school districts across the United States have attempted to replicate Edmonton's success with school-site decision making. However, most districts have stopped short of implementing one policy that is central to Edmonton's…

Although New York's highest court granted children the constitutional right to a meaningful high school education in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York, equitable funding has yet to be implemented. The state of New York continues to stall on revising the funding formula statewide, despite the many indications that this must be done if…

Chances are that many high school students would not know how to use drafting instruments, but some might want to gain competence in computer-assisted design (CAD) and possibly computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM). These students are often attracted to tech courses by the availability of CAD/CAM instructions, and many go on to impress employers…

The 1995 South Dakota State Legislature enacted a new state aid to education formula. This memorandum is designed to provide background information on the formula. The repeal of the formula in existence at the time and replacement with a different formula was the product of several factors. Some of those factors were: (1) the inclusion of a new…

Formula funding in Illinois reflects decisions on value choices which can be grouped in the categories of enrollment linkage, mission and diversity recognition, equity and fair share, and quality and program improvement. The enrollment linkage of the Illinois formula ties credit hour grants and categorical programs directly to full-time equivalent…

Current formula funding practices in the South and implications for the future are analyzed. Formula funding systems are used in 12 of the 14 states belonging to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Changes that have occurred in the formulas of each state since 1973-74 are described. Data from 1977-78 academic year are compared to the…

The current Illinois school finance formula fails to bring very wealthy districts within acceptable equalization bounds. Manipulating tax rates of wealthy and other districts is unacceptable or financially unfeasible. This paper proposes a two-stage process requiring state equalization at the county level, followed by equalization within each…

Although the Oregon Legislature has succeeded in creating a funding formula that equalizes per pupil spending, it is struggling with budgetary inadequacies. There is no dedicated funding source for schools, voters have enacted further property-tax limitations, and some schools have had to cut programs and staff every year. Nevertheless, Oregon's…

Summarizes Kentucky's progress toward educational equity, concentrating on (1) the Kentucky Supreme Court's 1989 decision declaring the state's educational finance system unconstitutional and (2) a description and preliminary evaluation of the state's new four-part funding formula featuring pupil weighted averages for expenditure by wealth…

Since its introduction in 2001, the Australian (Commonwealth) Government's socio-economic status (SES)-based funding scheme for private schools has been criticised as inequitable. The author argues that the inequities of the scheme are the result of government policy rather than the SES-based model itself. Compared with the former education…

Discussions about appropriate methods for education research have escalated in the wake of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and related changes to federal policies for educational research and its funding. This legislation highlights the importance of "scientifically-based research" and in particular foregrounds the use of…

This paper presents the annual report of the Association for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) for 2007. In 2007, ACNJ made the future better for children by: (1) Successfully advocating for an expansion of high-quality preschool through increased funding in the FY 2008 state budget and inclusion of a major preschool expansion in the new school…

Most states have experimented with performance accountability as a way to drive improvement in public higher education institutions and systems. However, efforts to implement performance funding in the United States have yielded mixed results. This policy brief describes the reforms that dramatically changed the policy landscape in England and…

The Maryland Higher Education Commission, with the assistance of a Task Force on Continuing Education, produced this 2001 manual. The manual describes the regulations, policies, and procedures pertaining to the approval for State funding of continuing education courses offered by community colleges. Continuing education in the State of Maryland…

The problem of allocating increasingly limited funds appropriately in higher education is discussed in an introductory manner. The article describes the development of an allocation process that was developed and used in a college of education in making allocations of library/media funds to departments and program.