This study's purpose was to explore the premise that increasing state support for elementary/secondary schools increases equal student access to educational opportunity. Following a brief overview of the background of the problem, including a description of the so-called "Minnesota Miracle" or Omnibus Tax Law of 1971 with its provisions…

The Post-Secondary Enrollment Options Act, enacted by the Minnesota State Legislature in 1985, allows 11th- and 12th-grade high school students to take courses, for credit, in colleges, junior colleges, and vocational-technical institutes despite opposition from high school authorities. Students may use credits from these courses to count toward…

The three sections of this document provide: (1) an overview of welfare work requirement policies from 1935 to 1988; (2) a discussion of the education-related provisions included in the Family Support Act of 1988; and (3) a summary of the likely effects of the increasing emphasis on education for welfare recipients. In the first section, the…

This monograph examines four plans for state funding of educational facilities: total control; 50-50 flat grants; full state funding; and equalization. The trend in many states is to become increasingly more involved in helping local school districts with capital outlay for facility requirements. Recent litigation suggests that capital outlay is…

This monograph investigates issues related to the financial support of rural schools. The first section describes various state formulas and the methods used to distribute funds to rural schools. It considers questions about the adequacy of funding adjustments based on sparsity and the relationship of such adjustments to equal educational…

This document provides an overview of important financial statistics for Pennsylvania community colleges from the time they began operation in 1964 through the last completed audit of the colleges in 1983-84. The document is divided into eight major sections. Section I provides statewide institutional data for 1964-65 to 1983-84 on reimbursements…

This report was prepared to assist Pennsylvania community colleges in analyzing their financial performance in relation to their peers, and contains financial data for the years 1983-84 to 1989-90. This report is divided into 15 sections. Sections I through VII examine reimbursement requests, by year, for 1983-84 to 1989-90, in terms of…

The historical and current balance among the federal, state, and local levels in the control of education is reviewed in this report, with a focus on effective schools research and the management of change. Five policy instruments are described, which include mandates, inducements, capacity-building, system-changing, and leadership. A conceptual…

An overview of incentive programs for teachers, administrators, and schools is presented in this report. Topics of discussion include trends in state and local funding, rewards based on teacher performance versus student performance, and program evaluation and outcomes. Discussion findings indicate that the most important and persistent questions…

The cost of a bachelor's degree was estimated and compared for different types of institutions. The objective was to develop a single index to show how much each type of institution spends on producing a bachelor's degree graduate, and to use trend data to show how these costs will change over time. The basic concept associated with the cost of a…

The current use of part-time faculty and issues regarding this practice are addressed. Attention is directed to the demographic and employment characteristics of part-time faculty, the policies and practices that colleges follow for part-time employment, and legal and other constraints influencing the way they are used. Some institutional efforts…

The New York State Legislature provided $11.2 million to start up, renovate, improve, and/or operate child care centers on campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the State University of New York (SUNY). The 60 child care centers had over 4,500 children enrolled for 1987-88, and 20 centers opened as a direct result of the state…

Comparative higher education data for 1982-1983 are provided for the 14 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Brief narrative summaries are also included for each of the following topics: state appropriations, tuition and fees, faculty compensation, enrollment, degrees awarded, health professions education, and student testing results.…

Since 1977, school budgetary problems have been created by a decline in state and federal tax revenues combined with a greater demand for services and declining student enrollment. The serious erosion in the fiscal health of the 50 states over the last few years means that competition for tax dollars will increase, leaving government with the…

This report on the Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) Program in the California community colleges discusses the repayment of student loans and recommends strategies for reducing default rates. Introductory material highlights the following trends: (1) financial aid programs for low-income students have failed to keep pace with demand; (2) by 1983,…