The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins Act) is the primary federal law aimed at developing and supporting career and technical education (CTE) programs at the secondary and postsecondary educational levels. Prior to the 115th Congress, the Perkins Act had most recently been reauthorized in 2006 by the Carl D. Perkins…

With rising state and local revenues--and significant one-time federal funds in 2020-21 and 2021-22--California policymakers now have greater capacity to invest in public schools. At the same time, longstanding racial and income disparities motivate calls to provide funding more efficiently and equitably. This policy brief is adapted from Julien…

As students return to full in-person learning in 2021-22, California public schools face considerable challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Record-high funding distributed through the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) will provide some of the resources that will be key to an equitable recovery. This brief highlights selected findings…

There are two models that determine higher education funding in the state of Arkansas. The state uses a Need-Based Model in tandem with a Performance Based Model. The Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) is tasked with making recommendations to state lawmakers regarding budgets of public institutions of higher education. The Arkansas…

The Pathways for Academic Career and Employment (PACE) program is established to provide funding to community colleges for the development of programs that will lead to gainful, quality, in-state employment for members of target populations by providing them with both effective academic and employment training to ensure gainful employment and…

In an environment of increasingly diverse classrooms and evolving pedagogical techniques, it becomes increasingly difficult for teachers and administrators to know how to best support students, especially those with high needs. At the state level, education funding policies have been forced into similar renovation, impelled by everything from…

Teachers welcome the British Columbia government's review of the funding formula for public education. While inevitably suffused with technicalities, this exercise is fundamentally an opportunity to ensure that schools and classrooms reflect both the needs of students and, more broadly, British Columbia's values as a society. It is a chance to…

As the largest system of higher education in the nation, the California Community Colleges is uniquely positioned to help residents of all backgrounds improve their social and economic mobility and build a better future for themselves and their families. The 115 colleges serve more than 2.1 million students annually and transfer nearly 80,000 each…

This is the executive summary for the report "Roll Call: A Landscape Review of the Students, Financing, and performance of Milwaukee's K-12 Schools." The report takes stock of the changes that have occurred in the city's overall "system" of schools, including student enrollment and demographics, financing, and outcomes. Key…

Many state funding programs are intended to reach directly to students, but in reality funds must go through school districts, which have considerable freedom in how they allocate resources. As such, states have a strong interest in ensuring that districts invest in strategies that are backed by evidence and create opportunity for all students.…

School vouchers are defined as certificates of government funding that are allocated to students and intended to defer the cost of tuition at a private school of the student or the student's parents' choice. With strong views on opposing sides, the issue of school choice and the corresponding use of vouchers has certainly been catapulted into the…

This brief tells the story of Indiana's efforts to develop and implement outcomes-based funding (OBF) for public postsecondary education. Indiana's story is supplemented by a briefer description of efforts in Tennessee. Based primarily on interviews with key state leaders, this story is designed to highlight the unique path each state took to…

The Impact Aid program, administered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), was originally established in 1950 by P.L. 81-815 and P.L. 81-874, 15 years prior to the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Impact Aid compensates local educational agencies (LEAs) for a "substantial and continuing financial…

Rural America is experiencing an era of unprecedented demographic change, as rural communities of color are growing--an expansion that is necessary for keeping rural America thriving. But racial and class inequality divides many rural places, threatening rural students' education and rural communities' well-being, and the current pandemic is…

The Pathways for Academic Career and Employment (PACE) program is established to provide funding to community colleges for the development of programs that will lead to gainful, quality, in-state employment for members of target populations by providing them with both effective academic and employment training to ensure gainful employment and…