California recently overhauled its K-12 public education finance system. Enacted in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) replaced California's 40-year-old funding formula. The LCFF increases district officials' fiscal flexibility; provides more resources to districts serving larger proportions of low-income, English learner (EL), and…

Ten years have passed since New York's highest court ruled in the landmark school-funding and educational-rights case, "Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) v. State of New York," that the state was violating students' constitutional right to the "opportunity for a sound basic education" and ordered significant reforms of the…

Developing countries place a high premium on education because it is believed to correlate with economic development. Similarly, Botswana adopted an education-for-development policy when it became independent in 1966. Providentially, it discovered and mined minerals, particularly diamonds, and funded education. Unfortunately, Botswana is a…

This essay describes the economic, social, and civic benefits of college in prison. Turning to history, it describes the unfortunate 1994 decision to eliminate Pell Grant eligibility for people in prison and argues that the time is now right to reverse that policy. Finally, it describes several ways in which scholars of education can contribute to…

Evaluation studies can provide feedback on implementation, support continuous improvement, and increase understanding of evaluation systems' impact on teaching and learning. Despite the importance of educator evaluation studies, states often need support to prioritize and fund them. Successful studies require expertise, time, and a shared…

With the advent of outcomes-based funding policies, state policymakers are increasingly committed to basing public college and university funding on how institutions perform on valued measures such as program progress and degree completion. This rising emphasis is considered here in the historical context of three earlier state funding approaches:…

Many state education leaders are taking a fresh look at their school finance formulas in hopes of finding ways to contain costs and get more for their dollar. That is an understandable response given that education is the largest item on most state budgets. This paper examines how current funding practices lead to inefficiencies, particularly…

We use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States -- teaching -- to examine the effect of pension enhancements on employee retention. Specifically, we study a 1999 enhancement to the benefit formula for public school teachers in St. Louis that resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in their incentives to…

States differ markedly in their funding for public schools, both in terms of the fiscal effort their citizens demonstrate and the progressivity with which funds are distributed. Yet, less is known about why different states have enacted such different policies and financing systems. In this study, the relationships between a measure of states'…

Despite the Scottish Government's frequent affirmation of its commitment to social justice principles, there has of late been a recognition of the need for firmer action to tackle the social class gap in higher education participation, reflecting wider social inequalities in Scotland. In a recent policy statement, Angela Constance, Cabinet…

The pathways for academic career and employment program (PACE) is established to provide funding to community colleges for the development of projects that will lead to gainful, quality, in-state employment for members of target populations by providing them with both effective academic and employment training to ensure gain. This is the second…

This article seeks to deepen our understanding of the nature and quality of democratic participation in educational reform by examining the first-year implementation of California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) mandating civic engagement in district decision-making. Drawing on democratic theory, empirical literature, and data from 10…

The trends and the trajectory of higher education research expenditure in South Africa since the introduction of the New Funding Formula in 2004 have been analysed. The paper also compares the level of South Africa's total gross expenditure on research and development with those of other selected economies. The findings show that following…

"Cost­-sharing" refers to the principle that a variety of sources contribute to the cost of higher education. This study utilizes university-­level data from the United States to explore the increasing shift of cost burdens from governments to students. Panel regression results suggest that the share of expenditures drawn from tuition…

In 2015, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) administered the Digital Instructional Materials Survey regarding state policies and guidelines for the acquisition, vetting, and funding of instructional resources for all 50 states, Guam, and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Based upon this survey,…