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…

For nearly three decades, public colleges and universities in the United States have suffered a sharp decline in the level of state funding that they receive (Chronicle, 2014). As a result, in order to remain not even competitive but simply financially stable, institutions of higher education have found it necessary to seek other means and sources…

"Educating the Top 100 Percent" assesses the decline of higher education funding and offers ambitious policy recommendations to restore the possibility of accessible, affordable education for all. Stephen G. Katsinas, Nathaniel J. Bray, and Martha J. Kanter probe the complex interplay of federal, state, and local policies and illustrate…

Since 1979 more than thirty states have adopted "performance funding" for public institutions of higher education. Under performance funding, a portion of the state appropriations for each institution is determined by the institution's achievement of performance goals on such metrics as retention and graduation. We argue that several…

Pay-for-performance has become a state finance policy du jour for public postsecondary institutions. A total of 35 states currently distribute varying amounts of appropriations to colleges and universities based on outcome measures. This study uses a difference-in-differences quasi-experimental technique to assess the impact of performance-based…

Chapter 1 of the "Comprehensive Statewide Plan for Postsecondary Education" identifies several statewide goals related to meeting the needs of students, meeting the needs of the state, meeting needs by building exemplary institutions, and meeting educational needs through partnerships and collaboration. These goals are critical to the…

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) ensures educational equity for multilingual learners through supporting school districts and charter schools to develop, implement and evaluate research-based language instruction educational programs (LIEPs) so that multilingual learners, including students with English learner (EL) status, attain…

Policymakers in Texas want to understand the funding levels necessary for community colleges to meet their promise of providing an affordable and accessible pathway to a postsecondary certificate or degree. This study was conducted to help these policymakers better understand the extent to which Texas community colleges had adequate funding to…

This paper examines how colleges respond to the introduction of broad merit aid programs. Previous research has emphasized the impact of merit aid on enrollment, student choices, and post-matriculation outcomes. Yet much less is known about how state-implemented merit aid programs affect colleges' financial decisions. To explore impacts, college…

The federal government currently provides more than $150 billion each year to students and their families in the form of grants, loans, work-study funds, and tax credits to help make college more affordable. This sizable public investment in higher education has indeed made college attendance possible for a larger share of Americans. However,…

After decades of slow growth, the share of young Americans completing college has increased to 48 percent in 2019, from 39 percent 10 years earlier. What accounts for the rise? Are more students clearing a meaningful bar for graduation, or are colleges and universities engaging in credential inflation and lowering their academic standards? This…

As performance-based funding models have become the new norm for allocating state funds, universities have begun to focus more on meeting and exceeding persistence and graduation metrics. For those universities that have already made substantial gains in these metrics by implementing changes that address large populations of students, attaining…

In a state where most higher education institutions are working to address financial and enrollment challenges, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) faces some of the greatest difficulties of all. UWM's steep enrollment drop has exacerbated the effects of an eight-year tuition freeze and lagging state funding, forcing cuts to faculty,…

This report describes the establishment and delivery of Illinois career and technical education (CTE), the existing condition of Illinois CTE based on fiscal year 2021 data, and the future developments and recommendations for CTE in the state as required by Illinois School Code 105 ILCS 435/2e. Illinois CTE focuses on providing equitable…

The relationship between lack of a high school diploma and juvenile incarceration is well known. This study investigated whether an increase in state fiscal effort for education is associated with decreased juvenile incarceration rates. Each state's and the District of Columbia's educational fiscal effort and its relation with state juvenile…