States provide substantial support for higher education through appropriations to public colleges and universities that can be used to maintain relatively low tuition levels and funds for financial aid. Higher education often receives disproportionate cuts during recessionary periods, and it faces potentially unprecedented reductions in coming…

A recent analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum highlighted the State Legislature's failure to adequately fund the cost of programs and services for students with disabilities. Wisconsin currently reimburses school districts for less than a third of special education costs. Because special education programs and services are mandated by the…

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, emerging evidence provides a deeper understanding of the pandemic's impact on the more than 8 million young people with disabilities. This includes youth who receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or who qualify under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973…

Today, free public kindergarten for five-year-old children is available in every state and community throughout the United States, and public education is routinely referred to as K-12. But kindergarten did not start out this way. Kindergartens in the United States once served children as young as three and four years old. In fact, today's…

For years, California's county offices of education (COEs) have played a role in supporting districts by providing financial oversight, serving as a liaison to the California Department of Education (CDE), and addressing region-specific needs. In early 2022, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation commissioned SRI Education to conduct a study to…

This dissertation is a qualitative study includes documents analysis and interviews. The study focus is applying entrepreneurial theory to funding public higher education in the U.S. The critical portion of the dissertation focuses on the best practices they have implemented to practice academic entrepreneurialism. The literature review takes a…

Texans ages 25-34 who earn an associate degree are nearly twice as likely to earn at least $50,000 per year than those who don't earn a degree (24% vs. 13%). Those earning a bachelor's degree or higher are nearly four times as likely to reach this self-sustaining wage (49% vs. 13%). If every eighth grader in Harris County were to earn an associate…

This paper examines the New York State Excelsior Scholarship and the criteria that must be met for students to be eligible to receive it. The main focus of this examination is how this scholarship aims to address access issues faced by students from low income families and how the program can be improved to better address their needs. Comparisons…

From 2012 to 2017, nearly 15,000 New England residents participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA students are ineligible for federal financial aid programs, but state and institutional aid can flow to undocumented students. As of March 2017, 20 states, including Connecticut and Rhode Island, offered in-state…

While state appropriations are the largest revenue source of the U.S. public university systems, they have declined significantly over the past several decades. Surprisingly, there is little empirical work on the effect of state appropriation cuts on the research productivity of public universities. Helping fill that gap, this paper is the first…

The rising price of attending college has made college affordability an increasingly important policy issue in recent years. In order to make college more affordable for students and their families, states can pursue three possible options. The first option is to provide additional state appropriations to colleges, which allows institutions to…

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a crisis in state and local budgets, potentially leaving many schools to face budgetary declines even as they've had to transform the way they serve their students, particularly those who are most vulnerable. Bruce Baker, Mark Weber, and Drew Atchison offer four recommendations for mitigating the looming fiscal…

We estimate the impact of school finance reform on adequate and equitable district spending, school resources and student achievement in Pennsylvania. From the 2008-09 to the 2010-11 school years, amid the Great Recession, Pennsylvania's "Act 61" increased aid to school districts spending below state-determined adequacy targets…

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often rely on Medicaid-funded services and supports to facilitate their daily living. The financial investment for these services is significant, yet little work has been conducted to understand how these investments affect life outcomes. This pilot study used a novel data integration…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95) amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to add a new Part E to Title I entitled "Flexibility for Equitable Per-Pupil Spending." Under Title I-E, the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) has the authority to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with flexibility to…