Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) offer parents a publicly funded, government-authorized savings account they can draw on for certain K-12 educational expenses. As these programs have expanded in recent years, they have become a flashpoint in education policy debates. For some, ESAs are an extension of existing private school choice programs'…

This report explains how State Entity (SE) Program grantees are using or proposed to use the technical assistance (TA) set-aside portion of their Charter School Programs (CSP) funds for these activities. This report also describes SE activities to ensure subgrantees are equipped to meet the needs of all students, and specifically students with…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) follows education budgets and legislation during regular and special legislative sessions. The Legislative Reports follow education and budget issues from governors' proposals through final legislative actions in each of the 16 SREB states. This report presents final legislative and budget actions in…

As Internet technology encroached on the public school classroom about a decade ago, Kim Ross, superintendent of the Houston School District in Houston, Minnesota, saw an opportunity. At first, he and his administrative team simply wanted to offer students in the district of 1,300 access to more classes via the web than what a district that size…

The Alabama Commission on Higher Education has the statutory responsibility for the overall statewide planning and coordination of higher education in Alabama, the administration of various student aid programs, and the performance of designated regulatory functions. This annual report provides information about all of these responsibilities and…

Measures equity of per-pupil revenue distribution across jurisdictions in Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia, using conventional equity statistics and alternative measures (an Index for the upper half of the revenue distribution and the "Angle of Inequity"). The study, including state and local revenues only, showed that…

"Moving the Needle on Poverty" is designed to provide Colorado leaders with an up-to-date picture of the diverse strategies that states across the nation are pursuing to lift individuals, families, and communities out of poverty. As the report indicates, many states are choosing to set specific and measurable goals for poverty reduction,…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Bill Gates Testifies Before Senate Committee: Microsoft Chairman Pushes for High School Reform, Says Every Child…

As precribed by Act 79-461, Section 9, the Alabama State Commission on Higher Education evaluated the budgets submitted by the senior public institutions of higher education and by the Chancellor of the junior, community, and postsecondary vocational and technical education system and reached two sets of funding recommendations for all of higher…

The sixth annual report of the Alabama Council on Vocational Education presents 21 objectives for performance analysis of the State's 1975 vocational education program. Also presented are the group's evaluation findings (examining effort, performance, adequacy, and efficiency) and a summary of findings from other Council Studies. The Council…

Activities of the Alabama State Commission on Higher Education are described. Three sections discuss the following: (1) planning and coordination activities (unified budget recommendation, statewide planning process, research and service program inventory, new program approval, off-campus instruction, non-resident institutional review, conference…

Selected information is displayed in the form of charts, tables, and graphs about: (1) the State Student Incentive Grant (SSIG) program and other state-level student financial assistance programs; (2) the primary state agency or organization responsible for administering these programs; and (3) the general state characteristics relating to student…

To complement the information gathered on middle school and high school literacy initiatives as reported in "Middle and High School Literacy across the Curriculum" (Task 1.2 Fast Response Project), the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast (REL-SE) staff conducted a scan of the six southeast states to gather the following information…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), with the help of its Educational Technology Cooperative and its Wide Area Networking Task Group, designed a survey to identify the computer networking resources in the 15 SREB states. The survey was conducted to identify: (1) the various statewide educational networks in each of the SREB states; (2)…

This document presents funding proposals from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. Individual sections present the following: (1) the executive summary of the 1988-89 Unified Budget Recommendations; (2) a detailed presentation of the Higher Education Unified Budget Recommendations Program for the 1986-87 and 1987-88 appropriations and the…