This First Look report presents data on public elementary and secondary education revenues and expenditures at the local education agency (LEA) or school district level for fiscal year (FY) 2015.1 Specifically, this report includes findings for the following types of school district finance data: (1) Current expenditure totals and current…

Although much attention in the education research literature has been placed on comparing the effectiveness of charter schools to the effectiveness in traditional public schools, far less work has gone toward developing a better understanding of the differences in spending and resource allocation between the two sectors. This report aims to help…

The purpose of this study was to determine what size district (or range of sizes) better fosters an environment conducive for high student achievement and low district expenditure. The ideal district size debate goes back centuries, with the initial efforts to reform small districts that had their start in the early 19th century as rural single…

In theory, public school districts with more funding might be more likely to reopen in person if resources are a primary driver of their reopening decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is also possible that these decisions are influenced by other factors including political partisanship, incentive structures, and special interests.…

Arkansas launched a series of far-reaching reforms in 2003 and 2004 aimed at promoting equity and adequacy of education. The education funding system has since directed considerably more school resources to economically disadvantaged and low-performing school districts. This study investigates whether a more equitable allocation of educational…

"Making the Grade" provides an annual overview of the condition of school finance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data in this edition gives a picture of states' investment in their public school systems in the 2019-20 school year, the historic moment when public education, and society at large, experienced the massive…

School districts have increasingly adopted weighted student funding (WSF) formulas that allocate dollars, rather than staff positions, to schools in the name of equity and flexibility. While research to date has studied equity in some of these districts, there is no research that examines the entire cohort of WSF districts together. This paper…

School districts have increasingly adopted weighted student funding (WSF) formulas that allocate dollars, rather than staff positions, to schools in the name of equity and flexibility. While research to date has studied equity in some of these districts, there is no research that examines the entire cohort of WSF districts together. This paper…

School districts in the United States often borrow on the municipal bond market to pay for capital projects. Districts serving economically disadvantaged communities tend to receive lower credit ratings and pay higher interest rates. To remedy this problem, 24 states have established credit enhancement programs that promise to repay district debt…

This article is an exploratory analysis of nearly 40 years of trends in education funding to explore the current state of funding for Indian elementary and secondary (K-12) education and whether it is sufficient. A description of the current funding system for K-12 Indian education, four programs undergirding the analysis, and relevant literature…

Targeted school funding is a potentially valuable policy lever to increase educational equality by race, ethnicity, and income, but it remains unclear how to target funds most effectively. We use a regression discontinuity approach to compare districts that narrowly passed or failed a school funding election. We use close tax elections in 9 states…

Troubled by the inequities in competitive grantmaking, we use critical quantitative methods to analyze the FY2023 federal academic earmarks as a potential mechanism for racialized change work. Specifically, we ask: To what extent does Congress distribute academic earmarks in ways that reinforce or weaken the racialized stratification of resources…

In 2002 the Council of the Great City Schools and its members set out to develop performance measures that could be used to improve business operations in urban public school districts. The Council launched the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to achieve these objectives. The purposes of the project were to: (1) Establish a common…

Federal Student Aid (FSA), a principal office of the United States (U.S.) Department of Education (Department), is required by law to produce an annual report, which details the organization's fiscal year financial and program performance. The Federal Student Aid FY 2024 Annual Report (Annual Report) is a comprehensive document that provides an…

As required by R.S. 17:100.13, each city, parish, or other local public school board shall provide a report by June first of each year to the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) on all of the following: (1) The number of students identified as needing expanded academic support, the number of students provided each type of academic support,…