Missouri drama teacher Jo Nell Seifert was floored by the million-dollar bequest left to her high school club after a close friend's death. But the dispute that followed made the gesture more bitter than sweet. But this unexpected wealth has not turned out to be the freewheeling source of joy extolled by Fiddler's thwarted Rich Man. Discussion…

As federal aid for students uprooted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita begins making its way to cash-strapped school districts, many educators are worried that the money Congress allocated will fall well short of their costs. Since the hurricanes damaged hundreds of schools in the Gulf Coast region and initially dispersed nearly 375,000 students,…

International comparisons of data on expenditure on education use purchasing power parities for currency conversion and adjustment for price differences between countries to allow for volume comparisons. The resulting indicators are commonly interpreted as differences between countries in input volumes to the education sector-teachers, materials,…

In 1993, the state of Massachusetts implemented comprehensive reforms that included increased state aid to local school districts. This study presents empirical evidence on whether these reforms actually increased educational spending and, if so, in what functional areas. These evaluations are based on relatively detailed annual financial data…

People look at one billion dollars in one of two ways: if it is the result of the long, hard effort of years of fundraising, they rejoice; if it signifies an astronomical budget deficit, they cringe. How, then, should people respond as a community to reaching the $1 billion mark ($1,242,436,438, to be exact) in this year's spending for public…

The author initially describes several seminal and interconnected departures from the old social order which are currently happening and which are creating a new and indeed unprecedented setting for the educational process, thereby raising a series of never-before-encountered challenges for the educators. He then details how society is being…

In response to court rulings, states such as California and Washington have sought to promote greater equality in per pupil spending by shifting from local financing of public education to state financing. In this article, we investigate how constraints on local discretion resulting from this shift to state financing influence the level and growth…

The few studies focusing on the relationships between higher education expenditures and student outcomes have produced contradictory results. This study hypothesized that the lack of consistent relationships is a function of the fact that the effects of expenditures on outcomes are mediated by student engagement. Furthermore, it is expected that…

The No Child Left Behind Act has spawned new opportunities--and challenges--for an increasingly diverse testing industry. With all of the federal law's testing requirements, the Government Accountability Office estimates that states will have to spend between $1.9 billion and $5.3 billion in the next six years, depending on the types of tests…

Over the past decade and a half, the Commonwealth has moved steadily to increase expectations on school districts, schools, teachers, and students to meet the demands of a global economy. It has also added fiscal resources to support reaching these expectations, increasing state aid for education by almost 11 percent per year throughout the 1990s.…

Within the context of the school finance literature, the concepts of equity and adequacy raise a number of complex definitional and pragmatic issues. The purpose of this paper is to clarify those issues and to use those concepts to evaluate the recent policy proposal called Weighted Student Funding (WSF). Though WSF contains some equity-enhancing…

Policymakers in Arizona and the other states served by the West Regional Educational Laboratory, like their counterparts across the country, are actively addressing the school and district improvement requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. They have developed criteria based on assessment and accountability data to identify…

"ARL Statistics 2005-06" is the latest in a series of annual publications that describe collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities for the 123 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Of these, 113 are university libraries and 10 are public, governmental, and nonprofit research libraries. Data reported by libraries…

This report examines funding disparities between two seemingly similar schools in Virginia and North Carolina. It finds that the federal, state, and local policies designed to distribute education funds systematically provide more money to higher-income students and wealthier schools. (Contains 5 figures.) [This report was also produced by the…

The Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education recognizes the importance of safe, functional, well-utilized and well-maintained facilities in supporting institutional efforts to provide exemplary programs. This principle forms the basis for the Commission's capital construction budget recommendations and prioritization for the 2009-2011…