The key to anticipating local response to state finance policy is to bridge knowledge of the state context with the specifications of the individual reform. Yet it is precisely this unique blend of social, political, and economic factors in any given state that makes the impact of school finance reforms difficult to predict, especially as these…

This article investigates the economic aspects of monitorial education in Sweden during the 1820s. In contrast to previous research, which has often emphasised monitorial education as a cheap method of education, this article shows that this was rarely the case. Monitorial education could in fact lead to increased costs, especially during the…

Michigan's public colleges and universities have become steadily less affordable over the past two decades, mirroring a national trend where state funding of public higher education has not kept pace with costs, leading to increased tuition and fees. States continually assess their higher education tuition and other policies in comparison to their…

The current study examines costs, measured by educational and general (E&G) spending, and cost efficiency at 252 public master's institutions in the United States over a nine-year (2004-2012) period. We use a multi-product quadratic cost function and results from a random-effects model with a first-order autoregressive (AR1) disturbance term…

Background: The public health benefits of tobacco taxation are undermined when smokers engage in price-minimizing behaviors other than quitting in response to rising prices. Methods: 314 students at the University of Nottingham, UK, completed an online survey about their smoking behavior and their likely responses to hypothetical tobacco price…

Policymakers and practitioners often must balance distributing resources equitably and efficiently while being accountable for high student achievement. This paper focuses on these concepts as they relate to English learners and examines equity and efficiency in Minnesota's educational funding from 2003 through 2011, the years spanning…

This paper examines the determinants of spending and the amount of time attending private supplementary tutoring, or commonly known as private tuition, in Malaysia. Based on 343 self-reported questionnaires with upper secondary students across three states in Malaysia and using multiple regression analysis, we identified ethnicity, father's level…

The Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL), in collaboration with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), submits this preliminary report to detail quality control measures in the Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) program. This report highlights existing quality control measures and efforts in reducing overpayments…

The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify possible relationships between academic achievement, as measured by high school graduation rate and ACT composite scores of individual school districts within the state of Tennessee, and the per-pupil expenditure of each district. Research was conducted to determine whether a significant…

In an increasingly challenging financial period for K-12 public education in Pennsylvania, more school districts are turning to school-supporting foundations to fill the funding gap. Initially spurred by reduced investments in public education in California in the 1970s, school foundations did not begin gaining traction in Pennsylvania until two…

The expectation in this country is that all students should be able to succeed in school. Yet new data and accountability agendas have heightened attention to performance disparities between students with different identifiable needs--needs that stem from poverty, disability, or limited English proficiency. Educators and policymakers know that…

This paper examines the effect of a tuition-free high school program launched in FY2010 in Japan on the high school enrollment rate and household spending. We have some interesting findings. First, the program contributed to improvement in the high school enrollment rate for poorer households. Second, the program stimulated household spending…

The federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program allocated US$7 billion over nearly a decade in an effort to produce rapid and lasting improvements in schools identified as low performing. In this article, we use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of Ohio's SIG turnaround efforts on student achievement and school…

A significant criticism of the charter school movement is that funding for charter schools diverts money away from traditional public schools. As shown in prior work by Bifulco and Reback (2014) for two urban districts in New York, the magnitude of such adverse fiscal externalities depends in part on the nature of state and local funding policies.…

In this dissertation, I explore questions relating to estimating and framing college net pricing. In the first study, I measure variation in actual grant aid awards for students predicted by the federal template Net Price Calculator (NPC) to receive identical aid awards. Estimated aid derived from the federal template NPC accounts for 85 percent…