A new Commonwealth Foundation report praises Pennsylvania's tax credit scholarship programs, which create private-school vouchers funded through tax-credited donations. The report argues for the programs' expansion to meet increasing demand. However, this report has at least three major shortcomings. It trivializes the amount of spending on the…

This paper reports results from a fiscal analysis of Pennsylvania SB 299, a proposal to expand the state's two tax-credit scholarship programs. Pennsylvania currently has two programs in operation, the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) Program. This paper is organized as follows.…

Driver Education is one of the most expensive courses on a per pupil basis offered in secondary schools. In order to assess the magnitude of driver education in New York State, and to evaluate the various methods and approaches used to teach the course, the Office of Education Performance Review surveyed 67 driver education programs offered at…

Reports changes in Medicaid policies and their effects on utilization and expenditures for the aged. States exercised greater discretionary authority by adopting cost containment policies that reduced the number eligible, the availability of services, and reimbursement rates, resulting in reductions in utilization and expenditures. (Author/ABB)

This study examined State University of New York (SUNY) costs for support services to students, focusing particularly on why SUNY's costs are higher than those of similar states and where more efficiency might be achieved. The study involved the following elements: analysis of service costs for all SUNY campuses for fiscal year 1989-90; six visits…

This study seeks to inform the debate over a proposal in Georgia to give tax credits for contributions to organizations that provide scholarships to K-12 private schools. Such a program would extend to K-12 education the philosophy of choice that is inherent in the state's existing Hope Scholarships program for college students. This study…

Examination of cost and job placement data for 428 of 2,958 courses taught in California Regional Occupational Centers and Programs showed few differences among 8 course areas, suggesting that centers invest differing amounts in areas to achieve equivalent placement. Cost-benefit analysis may be of limited usefulness when context cannot be…

The 2005 Washington State Legislature authorized, through Substitute House Bill 1345, a two-year pilot project allowing eligible students, who enroll for four or five credits in a term, to receive the State Need Grant (SNG). Several important policy considerations emerged during the pilot project. Board staff explored these issues with financial…

A conceptual framework is developed for analyzing the costs of alternative assessment instruments. The framework will be used in future analyses by the Center for the Study of Evaluation to determine the costs of alternative assessment programs in a number of states. It is important that a distinction be made between costs and expenditures. Costs…

This report describes the educational and economic achievements and challenges of the Utah adult education program in a statistical outline and in a chart format. Section A outlines general achievement information: numbers of Utah adults without a high school diploma; total enrollees; educational achievements (attendance, diploma or passage of…

The basic formula used by the Chapter 1 Migrant Education Program to allocate funds to state agencies includes an adjustment to help defray the cost of summer services for migrant children, which can be particularly expensive. In recent years, policymakers have questioned whether the current funding formula unfairly rewards states with modest…

Four products were developed during the second year of the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) cost effectiveness study for California community colleges. This project report presents: (1) a revised cost analysis form for state-level reporting of institutional program effectiveness data and per-student costs by EOPS program category…

The document reports a pilot test of the feasibility of the MISOE Census Data System (CDS) for estimating the costs of individual programs in a regional vocational school setting. The test determined that the data collection forms can be completed by a regional vocational school but that they can be simplified, and the costs of individual programs…

A study reviewed selected aspects of the State University of New York's (SUNY) Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) program from April 1, 1988, through January 31, 1992. Objectives were to evaluate program cost and effectiveness and level of involvement of SUNY Central Administration's Office of Special Programs and sponsoring college officials in…

The financing of Wisconsin's "Chapter 220" program, which is the primary means for implementing the 1988 federal court settlement of a school integration lawsuit, needs to be reformed. Total program costs may triple in 5 years, from about $32.5 million in 1986-87 to $90 million by the 1992-93 school year; per pupil costs could rise from…