Arizona has represented the epicenter of school choice in the United States. The state has had open enrollment for district schools for 30 years, charter schools for more than 25 years, a private school tax credit program for nearly as long, and was the first state in the country in 2011 to enact direct parent-appropriations through targeted…

Limited literature has investigated the effects of state and institutional merit-based financial aid on student choice of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major fields, an unintended consequence with important implications. By leveraging nationally representative longitudinal data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students,…

This policy paper estimates the short-run economic effects of the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan's state-funded preschool program for 4-year-olds. The paper considers 15-year effects on state residents' per capita incomes due to impacts on employment rates and real wages, as well as cost-savings from free preschool and fiscal…

This policy paper provides some updated estimates of the short-run fiscal effects of expanding Michigan's state-funded preschool program, the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), to encompass universal access for Michigan's four-year-olds. This is an update to Policy Paper No. 2025-034, which analyzed the economic and fiscal effects of Michigan's…

We sought to quantify the fiscal impact of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' released time programme in the state of Utah, in the United States of America, on funding for American public education. The guiding research question for this study was: How much money does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' seminary…

Education Development Center, in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Human Services (DHS), received an Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation Child Care Policy Research Partnership grant in 2022 to study state-administered funding initiatives aimed at supporting child care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular…

For the last two decades, dual enrollment has rapidly grown across the country. Previous studies consistently show that dual enrollment is positively associated with college enrollment, readiness, and persistence. However, descriptive statistics show that low-income students and racial minority students are underrepresented in dual enrollment…

The balance wheel hypothesis--a classic tenet of USA state-level policy analysis that suggests state funding for higher education varies in response to macroeconomic cycles--has held up to scrutiny over time. However, new social conditions within the Republican Party, namely growing hostility toward independent institutions, call for a more…

As of 2023, 44 states plus the District of Columbia provide schools with supplemental funding for their low-income students. Policymakers often want to understand how the "amount" of extra funding they provide for low-income students compares to other states. Because states use different methodologies to determine these amounts, previous…

The benefits of participating in one of these programs have been well documented, but so too have the gaps in been well documented, but so too have the gaps in participation among Black and Hispanic students, English participation among Black and Hispanic students, English learners, students with disabilities, and other groups not well learners,…

This study investigates how individual states raise revenue to pay for elementary-secondary education spending after a school finance reform (SFR). We consider 24 states that implemented SFRs between 1989 and 2005. Using a synthetic control approach, we identify six case-study states (Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, and…

This study investigates how individual states raise revenue to pay for elementary-secondary education spending following school finance reforms (SFRs). We identify states that increased and sustained education expenditures after reform, search for legislative statutes that appropriated more education spending, and assess how policymakers funded…

We study the effects of increased school spending in rural American school districts by leveraging the introduction and subsequent expansion of Wisconsin's Sparsity Aid Program. We find that the program, which provides additional state funding to small and isolated school districts, increased spending in eligible districts by 2% annually and that…

Grading inflation is a major problem in academia. The paper's purpose is to assess graduate students' perception of grade inflation. Students' results (n = 120) are examined by gender and grade point average. According to students, grade inflation is not a problem and grades accurately reflect performance. Respondents believe that some students…

Unpaid (informal) family caregivers provide vitally important supports to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), but receive little support or training. This study's aim was to examine how states across the nation supported informal family caregivers in their Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs for…