To acquire additional funding, San Francisco's Department of Recreation and Parks has organized the Friends of Recreation and Parks'' to obtain wide backing from individuals, organizations and businesses, and to coordinate the community's interests. (JA)

ALA reactions to threats of government intimidation of individuals, of the press, and of one library group against another are described. Background and on-the-spot interviews about libraries vanishing $200 million are presented. (Author/SJ)

This article discusses both the cost of computer assisted instruction and the circumstances under which a school system should consider installing such equipment. (AK)

Describes the conditions leading up to passage of Proposition 2 1/2 and how the Natick public school district adapted to a 15 percent reduction in its budget. (WD)

Teachers need to be involved in making decisions about how their retirement money is being managed by their retirement system. (MM)

Discusses why customized financial aid packages designed to attract selected students to fill a desired niche can jeopardize a college's fiscal health. (EV)

Many companies make mistakes when identifying which schools to include in their college relations programs. This article describes which criteria can be used for identifying target schools, and how to deal with the issue of the reduction in numbers of schools due to financial constraints. (ADT)

When the five-member Board of the Alameda Unified School District selected Kirsten Vital as the new superintendent in 2009, they chose someone from outside their tight-knit community. Board Trustee Margie Sherratt thought Vital was chosen to "get us moving," to be a change agent on closing the achievement gap. Vital, in her initial…

This year's "Quality Counts" report, the 15th edition of this annual report produced through the joint efforts of the "Education Week" newsroom and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, arrives at a time of continued fiscal anxiety and education policy ferment in the wake of what has been widely described as the…

This article investigates budget monitoring and control in township schools in South Africa. The enactment of the Schools Act 1996 revolutionized school financial management in South Africa, making it part of the drive for democratic school governance. School governing bodies had to be established, whose responsibility it became to manage finances…

Colleges and universities, like corporations and other nonprofit organizations, are subject to periodic fluctuations in the economy and public support. Thus, the question is not whether they will confront financial problems but rather when and how. This article describes how institutions and boards can detect budgets in crisis, provides principles…

This article reports that the new class of governors and state legislators to be elected November 4 will inherit financial problems that pose both immediate and long-term threats to existing education programs, while constraining their ability to mount new initiatives. The prospect of a deepening economic slowdown--with state-level budget deficits…

Simultaneous pressures to reduce costs and increase student achievement have never been greater than they are today. Not only is cost-cutting essential in this era of tightened resources, argue Hess and Osberg, but eliminating inefficient spending is critical for freeing up resources to drive school reform. This provocative book brings together a…

This year's "School Library Journal's" spending survey showed that, despite the recession, the vast majority of media centers around the country have retained their credentialed media specialists. For example, almost 85% of elementary schools and more than 95% of middle and high schools have a full-time certified librarian. In addition, salaries…

Included in this addendum are the findings for the Noel-Levitz 2011 National Freshman Attitudes Report by race/ethnicity for incoming students. These data show the percentage of students within each group that agreed with each item. Demographic breakdown of the respondents is presented on pages 7 and 8. [For related report, "National Freshman…