Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are vital to higher education. Yet, many land-grant HBCUs have received lower levels of funding since their inception. While many state legislatures have targeted funding toward HBCUs in recent years, many institutions feel that the historic inequity must be remedied. This issue brief examines…

Public institutions of higher education (IHEs) have four basic revenue streams: state appropriations, tuition, donations and contracts, and earned income. Over the last 2 decades, there has been a massive decrease in state appropriations for higher education. Declining state appropriations have forced public IHEs to look to alternative revenue…

The longstanding debate over K-12 funding in Michigan has recently intensified. Some point to "record spending" alongside lagging achievement relative to other states; others contend that, once adjusted for inflation, schools remain underfunded. This conversation is important as education is the second largest component of Michigan's…

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidizes child care costs to help low-income families afford care. Reimbursements for cost-subsidized care are paid to child care providers; however, per-child reimbursements are extremely low compared with market rates and actual cost of care. We examine how the 2014 CCDF reauthorization, which…

Since the 1990s, North Carolina has been an early leader on compensation and financial relief initiatives for the early care and education (ECE) workforce. This is most notably seen in the various targeted wage supplements they have established to advance educator pay. Most recently, they used federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to…

Quality K-12 education is consistently ranked as one of the top priorities of Arizona voters. However, understanding the distribution of dollars from funding source to classroom is challenging since there are several factors impacting this process. This report aims to provide an overview of the numerous and complex funding sources that contribute…

Securing research funding is essential for all researchers. The standard evaluation method for competitive grants is through evaluation by a panel of experts. However, the literature notes that peer review has inherent flaws and is subject to biases, which can arise from differing interpretations of the criteria, the impossibility for a group of…

English learners (ELs) are one of the fastest-growing student groups in the U.S. K-12 system, making up about one in 10 students enrolled in public schools nationwide. Despite research showing that EL students need more resources and supports to be successful in school, funding at the federal, state, and local levels to provide those additional…

This report examines state-funded loan forgiveness and conditional grant programs, designed to alleviate student loan debt and address workforce shortages in high-need fields. These service-contingent programs incentivize graduates to work in targeted occupations or underserved areas in exchange for debt relief.

State support for higher education has been volatile, prompting public universities to pursue alternative revenue sources to supplement state support. While dependence on alternative revenue sources has been raising, the relationship between these revenue sources and graduation rates has not been examined in depth. This study used panel data from…

In a dedicated effort to build high-quality, equitable career pathways Advance CTE, in partnership with Education Strategy Group through JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s "New Skills ready network," released "Braiding Funding To Support Equitable Career Pathways." This policy brief is the fourth in a series designed to help build…

State-funded preschool is already offered in mixed-delivery settings in most states, meaning that along with public schools, children are also served in settings such as child care centers, Head Start agencies, and private schools. However, just 39% of 4-year-olds and 14% of 3-year-olds were enrolled in publicly-funded programs, such as…

Many recent critical reforms in state school finance systems have been catalyzed by the courthouse, not the statehouse. Advocates for equity-focused school finance reforms often consider legal action as the best path to significant policy changes. This brief discusses state-level lawsuits on adequacy and equity grounds and their outcomes.

Child Care in State Economies (2024) is a three-part series examining the current status of the paid child care industry in the U.S. The reports provide policymakers and other stakeholders with a detailed update on the status of the paid child care industry following unprecedented disruption during the recent COVID-19 public health pandemic. This…

Given the proliferation of college promise programs and the increasing popularity of last-dollar designs, we explore changes to states' financial aid resource environments following the adoption of two of the largest and longest-operating state programs: Tennessee Promise and Oregon Promise. We leverage descriptive tools and a causal-inference…