California's higher education systems are entering an era of fiscal uncertainty as the population of young people is projected to stagnate or decline in the coming decade. As the state looks to turn the page after the pandemic and establish a more stable funding model, significant challenges lie ahead in the near term. To inform future policies,…

In this paper the author compares the impact of two proposals: one in the Shapiro administration's budget plan and one by the PA Schools Work (PASW) campaign for a down payment on fair and full funding of K-12 schools regarding how far they go in reducing the state's inequitable and inadequate school funding for school districts on the basis of…

This paper is the first to estimate the cost function of Connecticut public K-12 education and to evaluate the state's school spending based on regression-estimated education costs. It finds large disparities across districts in education costs and cost-adjusted spending. A large percentage of the state's public school students are enrolled in…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationship between district-level per-pupil expenditures and district-level student achievement in rural South Carolina school districts. School districts in rural South Carolina are synonymous with higher concentration of minority students and students living in poverty (Showalter, 2019). The…

This research study analyzed the per-pupil spending and outcomes in math and reading for students with disabilities across the 15 school districts in Virginia Department of Education's Region 2. The quantitative study utilized the per-pupil spending by district for each year to determine if there was a statistically significant relationship to the…

The factors that influenced school districts' decisions to offer virtual, hybrid, or in-person instruction during the 2020-21 school year--the first full school year after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic--have been the focus of a large body of research in recent years. Some of this research examines the influence of school spending, among…

State school finance systems can play an essential role in directing additional resources to schools serving economically disadvantaged students, and research suggests that these resources can make a measurable difference in student outcomes. The vast majority of states (45) allocate some funding to districts based on their enrollment of…

We study the effects of intergovernmental grants on school spending within the Finnish system of high school education funding. Using a kinked grant rule, the system allocates lump-sum intergovernmental grants to local high school education providers. Utilizing the quasi-experimental variation in grants given by the rule, we identify the effects…

Though there is an expanding field of research on public prekindergarten, there is a relatively little comprehensive investigation into what public prekindergarten costs. We address some of the absences in the literature by analyzing public-sector expenditures for the city of Boston's public prekindergarten program, a particularly high-quality…

The Canadian government implemented the child care expense deduction in 1972, a policy initiative intended to offset the financial cost of child care for eligible families. Although the deduction has now been in place for almost 50 years, and almost half of all families with a child aged 0--14 years use child care (Sinha, 2014), little research…

This study investigates the level of co-integration between education and economic growth in Nigeria and the causality effect of education on economic growth. The study employs secondary form of data spanning from 2000 to 2018 and are sourced from UNESCO, World Bank and CBN statistical bulletin. The data are collected on GDP, education expenditure…

Though there is an expanding field of research on public prekindergarten, there is a relatively little comprehensive investigation into what public prekindergarten costs. We address some of the absences in the literature by analyzing public-sector expenditures for the city of Boston's public prekindergarten program, a particularly high-quality…

For the past two to three decades, many private colleges and universities have derived enrollment and revenue benefits from ever-increasing listed tuition and institutional aid, in the absence of ever-increasing student demand. These benefits have led many institutions to set very high listed tuition prices and provide widespread institutional aid…

While the popularity of state-financed merit-based scholarships has increased since the 1980s, policymakers struggle to maintain these programs because of growing costs. Some have tried to manage this tradeoff through eligibility changes or award amounts; however, little empirical research exists on the effectiveness of these changes. We add to…

Understanding the funding requirements of public institutions starts with recognizing them as state assets with capacity to meet state needs, especially those that disproportionately serve underrepresented, low-income, or rural student populations and adult learners. As policy makers wrestle with resource allocation decisions under unfavorable…