Thirty years ago, charter schools embodied possibility. They were envisioned as nimble, innovative, community-driven alternatives to traditional public schools -- laboratories of experimentation led by teachers and grounded in equity. The grand bargain was clear: more freedom from regulations and bureaucracy in exchange for heightened…

Trenton Public Schools (TPS) have faced multiple years of fiscal turmoil as the district struggles to provide students with the resources required to meet the State's Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCSS). Under the tenure of Governor Chris Christie, the State failed to provide the state aid needed to support the district's budget, eroding…

In 2015, Education Law Center released a report documenting the strain on resources in the Newark Public Schools (NPS). Two years later the district is still feeling the impact of the underfunding of the state's school aid formula and the rapid expansion of the charter sector. Essential resources in district schools have been eroded, depriving…

The budget of the State-operated Newark Public Schools (NPS) is now in its fourth year of crisis. The district is currently struggling to close a $13 million budget hole almost halfway into the school year. Most importantly, the ongoing budget crisis has eroded essential resources in district schools, depriving students of the opportunity for a…

Congress charged the Advisory Committee in the "Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008" with monitoring and reporting on the condition of college access and persistence for low- and moderate-income students. The law requires provision of analyses and policy recommendations regarding the adequacy of grant aid from all sources--federal, state, and…

Third in a series of three articles on state tax support of higher education. Discusses 22 states with medium level gains of state tax support for higher education from 1960-70 (First article deals with 14 states with slowest gains; the second with 14 states with the most rapid gains). (Editor)

The major issue covered in this report involves the unequal distribution of GI Bill education benefits in different states. It is noted that since differences in state tuition charges are not recognized, veterans in Eastern and Midwestern high-tuition states have a harder time using education and training opportunities than veterans in Sunbelt…

This document contains a summary of the recommendations made in 1972 and 1973 by the Commission to the Illinois Legislature. Areas covered in the proposed educational legislation and in the recommendations include the common school fund, adult education, the gifted program, special education, the bilingual program, urban education, pupil…

A study examined the methods used by several California school districts to respond to educational retrenchment. Results showed that, while respondents had difficulty separating recent educational legislaton from other aspects of retrenchment, they agreed that there was no way to produce better results in education with a reduction in resources.…

This report describes the legislative response to state supreme court rulings on rural and small schools and districts. The paper addresses the following questions: How have rural and small schools and school districts been affected by state supreme court rulings and subsequent legislation? What has been the experience of rural and small school…

This monograph is the eighth in a series on Illinois educational finance. The first section discusses the decline of Illinois' funding for both K-12 and higher education relative to other states. The second section investigates whether the decline in funding is part of a general decline in the economic affairs of Illinois or whether other factors…

The need for reform in school financing is crucial and urgent. The regressive and anachronistic practice of financing schools through local property taxes perpetuates inequities detrimental to students and unfair to parents and taxpayers. Although it is the students in the inner cities that require special, more costly educational approaches,…

This report describes the procedures employed in the preparation of a list of courses to be deleted from the credit and noncredit programs of the California community colleges in response to a $30 million deduction from the total community college apportionments. The first section presents background on the 1982-83 budget bill, specifies three…

To provide a forum for discussing mutual concerns shared by legislators and educators and more specifically to promote a better understanding and clearer communications between the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and state legislators was the purpose of the 1975 Legislative Work Conference attended by 180 western…

This study focuses on the political feasibility of some of the alternatives open to States for raising educational revenue and allocating funds to local school districts. Eight states -- California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Oregon -- were chosen for study, to represent a range in (1) the level of State…