The authors provide an overview of the Cooperative Extension System and its program evaluation challenges. Part of the historic land-grant system, Extension exists in all states and territories of the United States and is funded through federal, state, and local (usually county) appropriations, as well as competitive grants and other sources.…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) placed a lifetime capitation of five years on welfare benefits. This Bill consolidated welfare and employment programs into the block grant known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The benefit package allows operation of programs in accordance with…

America's current adult education and workforce skills training programs were designed for a different time and different challenges. They must be fundamentally transformed to meet the nation's pressing 21st Century adult education and workforce needs. The National Commission on Adult Literacy calls for a new "Adult Education and Workforce…

Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid are both "need-based" federal programs intended to benefit certain categories of individuals who are legal residents of the United States--primarily those 65 or older, those who are blind or those with disabilities--who have minimal income and financial resources. However, an individual's…

In the passionate debates over providing equal educational opportunity for all children, it's frequently argued that large financial inequities create challenges for many public schools, particularly those in lower-income urban areas. This study compares the revenues and operating expenditures of Michigan's urban, suburban, town and rural school…

Financial aid systems help make higher education available to all who can benefit. To "adjust" the existing financial aid system to make it more student friendly and open doors currently closed to many part-time learners and students with the greatest financial challenges, state policy changes and greater private sector initiatives…

The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 gave states additional resources and tools aimed at improving participation in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In 2007, five million uninsured children were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, constituting 64 percent of all uninsured children.…

The secular increase over the past several decades in the number of families where both the husband and wife work in the paid labor force, coupled with the surge in labor force participation of single mothers in the 1990s, has heightened policy focus on child care options for working parents; federal and state governments are now major players…

In 2007, the 80th Texas Legislature included a rider to the General Appropriations Act for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The rider directed the agency to coordinate with the Texas Education Agency to develop and implement plans to align adult basic education with postsecondary education. The Coordinating Board, in collaboration…

Local government is not able to bear the burden of financing city libraries. Financial support from the state and federal governments and resource sharing among libraries are necessary. (PF)

This paper reviews some of the weaknesses in the present account classification system for public schools (the minimum function-object account classification system) and suggests a three-dimensional expenditure classification system to replace it. These three dimensions are: (1) The "type-of-school" dimension which considers such information as…

The listing of State-administered research and development projects was compiled on the basis of information supplied to the U. S. Office of Education by each State. The arrangement is alphabetical by State and for each project provides the title, the name of the grantee or contractor conducting the project, and the amount of Section 131(b)…

In 1969-70 the New York State Education Department adopted standardized fiscal forms for local education agencies to use for most federally funded programs. The standard forms have been an improvement and have been readily acknowledged as simplifying the application and funding procedure. Since 1969-70, changes, such as indirect cost procedures…

Excerpts from a study conducted for the Rhode Island Special Commission to Study the Entire Field of Education outlining a criteria for public policy and suggesting alternatives regarding public support of nonpublic education. (LN)