This paper investigates whether the audited financial statements of US independent school districts affect the districts' public provision of education services. Exploiting an increase in the regulatory threshold that exempts the school districts from preparing audited financial statements after 2015, I compare the newly exempted school districts…

This quantitative study examined important, selected election factors within and outside of school district control for passing public school bond elections in Oklahoma. The study used publicly available archival data to analyze 524 public school bond elections held in Oklahoma from FY19 through FY22. Additionally, the study used Bowers and Lee's…

The purpose of this study is to examine factors that influence stakeholder support of bond elections targeted for capital improvements in a rural school district in Kansas. The study uses existing research to identify factors that influence school bond referendum success. To better understand the factors identified in the research literature that…

School finance formulas vary from state to state, impacting school district educational outcomes. Rural school districts are especially affected due to inherent challenges in producing high student achievement scores. This study examined whether variables including socioeconomic status and per-pupil local tax level impacted student achievement…

Students who display problematic behavior in schools are subject to punitive disciplinary responses, such as detention and suspension, which typically lead to more serious academic and behavioral difficulties. There is evidence that alternative responses to problematic behavior, such as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and mindfulness…

The County School Facility Sales Tax (CSFT) has been a supplemental funding source for some Illinois school districts since its inception in 2007. CSFT offers districts an alternative source of revenue targeted specifically for school facilities and for paying off existing debt without relying on local property taxes. This study explores and…

In this dissertation, I seek to understand encroachment within school finance, wherein school districts must divert unrestricted, general education revenues to compensate for unfunded, mandated special education costs. I claim that encroachment in itself is not an issue -- special education students should be funded, and it is fair for local…

The world of education is ever changing as students are preparing for jobs that have yet to be created. Students who are raised in a home with a low socioeconomic background face additional challenges and are more likely to be one of the 6,700,000 students who receive special education services. This research examined the impact assessed valuation…

There is a growing concern in this country that the middle class is disappearing and not in the way one would hope. Instead of families moving into a higher socio-economic class and being able to provide richer life experiences for themselves and their children, vast numbers are shifting to a lower socio-economic status level. The gap between the…

In the first chapter titled "Cognitive Ability, Education, and Fertility Risk", I explore the role of cognitive ability in fertility timing. Women in the bottom quartile of the cognitive ability distribution are nine times more likely to have their first child as a teenager. First, I document the differences in age at childbirth by…

In 2012, President Obama signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) into effect, a policy that provided limited protections to approximately 800,000 immigrants brought to live in the United States by their parents at a tender age, but that did not address equitable access to higher education. States have since decided whether…

To address the problem presented in this research, the purpose of this embedded mixed methods case study was to explore accounting students' perceptions about the efficacy of using authentic assessment to determine how and to what extent experiential learning in the curriculum contributes to their preparation for certification and work in the…

An increase in the property tax rate of a school district creates an increase in local revenues for the district (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. [MODESE], 2017). The overarching question becomes: Do increases in the local tax levy compare to improved student performance? The purpose of this quantitative study was to…

This dissertation examines the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN, the first indigenous university in Nigeria and the first land grant university in Africa. This dissertation argues that UNN represented an innovative experiment in African higher education by expanding higher education to the general populace rather than the colonially privileged…

The problem addressed in this study is tax noncompliance by U.S. taxpayers. Despite the best efforts of the IRS noncompliance consistently averages 17% annually, amounting to billions of dollars in lost revenue for the federal government. The IRS needs to find a cost-effective method of closing this gap. Because the IRS has identified taxpayer…