Download or read book Funding Public Schools written by Kenneth K. Wong and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the fundamental role of politics in funding our public schools and fills a conceptual imbalance in the current literature in school finance and educational policy. Unlike those who are primarily concerned about cost efficiency, Kenneth Wong specifies how resources are allocated for what purposes at different levels of the government. In contrast to those who focus on litigation as a way to reduce funding gaps, he underscores institutional stalemate and the lack of political will to act as important factors that affect legislative deadlock in school finance reform. Wong defines how politics has sustained various types of "rules" that affect the allocation of resources at the federal, state, and local level. While these rules have been remarkably stable over the past twenty to thirty years, they have often worked at cross-purposes by fragmenting policy and constraining the education process at schools with the greatest needs. Wong's examination is shaped by several questions. How do these rules come about? What role does politics play in retention of the rules? Do the federal, state, and local governments espouse different policies? In what ways do these policies operate at cross-purposes? How do they affect educational opportunities? Do the policies cohere in ways that promote better and more equitable student outcomes? Wong concludes that the five types of entrenched rules for resource allocation are rooted in existing governance arrangements and seemingly impervious to partisan shifts, interest group pressures, and constitutional challenge. And because these rules foster policy fragmentation and embody initiatives out of step with the performance-based reform agenda of the 1990s, the outlook for positive change in public education is uncertain unless fairly radical approaches are employed. Wong also analyzes four allocative reform models, two based on the assumption that existing political structures are unlikely to change and two that seek to empower actors at the school level. The two models for systemwide restructuring, aimed at intergovernmental coordination and/or integrated governance, would seek to clarify responsibilities for public education among federal, state, and local authorities-above all, integrating political and educational accountability. The other two models identified by Wong shift control from state and district to the school, one based on local leadership and the other based on market forces. In discussing the guiding principles of the four models, Wong takes care to identify both the potential and limitations of each. Written with a broad policy audience in mind, Wong's book should appeal to professionals interested in the politics of educational reform and to teachers of courses dealing with educational policy and administration and intergovernmental relations.

Download or read book The Thief in the Classroom written by Jeff Swensson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An undetected thief lurks in America’s classrooms: funding for public education. Dynamic instruction, robust learning, and student futures are stolen when funding for public education is inadequate and inequitable. The devastating impact of this thievery is examined throughout this book. Student engagement with the potential and promise of traditional public education is stolen by funding formulas crafted by state legislatures. Theft in the classroom results when these funding schemes misdirect and disconnect the resources required to educate all US students. Called upon to deal with an ever-changing cascade of mandates, standards, legislation, and counterproductive testing marathons, but provided with funding so inadequate that instruction is often little better than anemic “test prep,” public educators in pursuit of the common good are robbed by insufficient funding. Although funding for public education is a topic unlikely to command frequent public discussion, no topic is more consequential for achievement, adequacy, and social justice in the learning, lives, and futures of America’s children and young people.

Download or read book Measuring Inequity in School Funding written by Diana Epstein and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Low-income children tend to be concentrated in low-income school districts, and these children often attend schools that receive far fewer resources per pupil despite their greater need. Since education is primarily a state responsibility, more than 90 percent of school funding comes from state and local sources, and the federal government provides the rest. Districts have traditionally drawn much of their revenue from local property taxes, which means districts in high-wealth parts of a state are often funded more generously than districts in low-wealth areas. Over time, some states have moved to school finance models in which districts receive more funding from state sources and rely less on local revenue streams. The shift to higher proportions of state funding is aimed at ensuring districts in lower-wealth areas have access to additional resources so funding across districts is more equitable. In other states, however, the level of school funding is still largely driven by local taxes. This paper discusses the differences in per pupil funding across states by highlighting measures of spending and effort. It then examines the problem of intrastate fiscal inequity and surveys some of the different measures that are used to characterize a state's level of funding equity among districts within a state. It then compares and contrasts the different measures and presents data on states' fiscal equity using a variety of measures. The data demonstrate that many states are not fairly funding their school districts. (Contains 4 figures and 19 endnotes.).

Download or read book Funding Public Education Fairly written by Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. School Finance and Property Tax Task Force and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Is School Funding Fair written by Bruce Baker and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policymakers, elected officials, educators, parents and advocates are currently engaged in long-overdue dialogue about how to improve our nation's public schools. Unfortunately, when it comes to school funding, the conversation is framed by recurring, but outmoded, adages: "Does money matter?" or "Can we do more with less?" or "Our state already spends too much." The National Report Card seeks to inform and change the national dialogue about how our states finance public education. The data is presented so that stakeholders, politicians, taxpayers and concerned citizens can think more carefully about the role of school funding in achieving better education outcomes of the nation's children. The Report encourages readers to think not just about "how much" we spend on education, but whether schools have sufficient funding to deliver a high-quality education to all students. The Report also encourages readers to think more deeply about states' finance mechanisms and the decisions state legislators and governors make in constructing and funding these systems. Are these funding systems fair, do they target sufficient resources to those children who need them most, and are funds being leveraged to produce the most equitable and successful outcomes? The data in this report describe the status of state school finance systems at the outset of an economic recession. The Report Card depicts a nation where many states were already in need of significant reform in the way they fund their schools. Substantial cuts have followed, including systematically greater funding cuts in higher-poverty districts in many states. Many states already had a lot of work to do to ensure that their funding systems provide sufficient resources, equitably distributed, so that all students are capable of achieving at high standards. This report demonstrates the need to understand fair school funding as the essential precondition for the delivery of high-quality education. As the important discussions of how to improve our schools, stakeholders are encouraged to recognize that no reform can be successful unless built upon an equitable and fair funding system. As these important debates about educational improvement continue, it is hoped that the National Report Card will contribute valuable information that helps determine the direction of public education policy at the local, state and federal levels. National Child and Student Poverty Rates are appended. (Contains 7 tables, 15 figures and 21 footnotes.) [For the previous edition, "Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card," see ED520522.].

Download or read book Funding Public Schools in the United States and Indian Country written by David C. Thompson and published by IAP. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 829 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Education Finance Academy (NEFA) has completed a project providing a one- of-a-kind practical book on funding P-12 education in the United States. The book, entitled Funding Public Schools in the United States and Indian Country is a single volume with a clear and short chapter about each state. Approximately 50% of chapters are authored by university faculty who are members of NEFA; approximately 25% of chapters are authored by state department of education officials and/or state school board association officials; and the remaining 25% of chapters are authored by ASBO affiliate states. Each chapter contains information about: • Each state’s aid formula background; • Basic support program description and operation (the state aid formula) including how school aid is apportioned (e.g., state appropriations, local tax contributions, cost share ratios, and more); • Supplemental funding options relating to how school districts raise funds attached to or above the regular state aid scheme; • Compensatory programs operated in school districts and how those are funded and aided; • Categorical programs operated in school districts and how those are funded and aided; • Any funding supports for transportation operations; • Any funding supports for physical facilities and operations; and • Other state aids not covered in the above list.

Download or read book Financing Public Education in an Era of Change written by Kenneth Forbis Jordan and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diverse economic, social, and legal concerns have brought renewed attention to the problem of financing public schools. The primary economic concern is preparing students to compete successfully in the international marketplace. The change in demographics of the United States also is a major social concern for education. Legal concerns focus on school financing systems that are equitable to students and taxpayers, and on providing adequate school funding. Despite complex state school-financing formulas, questions remain about what to fund, spending levels, revenue sources, and support from different levels of government. The answers to funding questions must be reached within the context of how schools function as well as the demographic, political, economic, social, and legal factors influencing school funding. This book is intended to help both educators and the general public better understand public school finance. Chapter topics include the context for public school finance, demographics and education, school finance policy goals and outcomes, state school finance equalization systems, the courts and school finance, taxation and sources of revenue for schools, and issues in public school finance. References accompany each chapter. (JPT)

Download or read book The Funding of School Education written by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and published by Organization for Economic Co-Operation & Development. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report on the funding of school education constitutes the first in a series of thematic comparative reports bringing together findings from the OECD School Resources Review. School systems have limited financial resources with which to pursue their objectives and the design of school funding policies plays a key role in ensuring that resources are directed to where they can make the most difference. As OECD school systems have become more complex and characterised by multi-level governance, a growing set of actors are increasingly involved in financial decision-making. This requires designing funding allocation models that are aligned to a school system's governance structures, linking budget planning procedures at different levels to shared educational goals and evaluating the use of school funding to hold decision makers accountable and ensure that resources are used effectively and equitably. This report was co-funded by the European Commission. .

Download or read book Making Money Matter written by Helen F. Ladd and published by Joseph Henry Press. This book was released on 1999-11-30 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that better management of money is more important than in the past if the nation is to raise the achievement of all students. Chapter 1, "Introduction," describes the book's origins and objectives. Chapter 2, "Setting the Stage," offers the goals of facilitating cost-efficient levels of achievement for all, breaking the link between background and achievement, and raising revenues fairly. Chapter 3, "Equity I," assess the meaning and nature of equity issues in educational finance, including efforts through litigation and legislative reforms. Chapter 4, "Equity II," considers the technical and conceptual challenges of educational adequacy. Chapter 5, "Improving the Productivity of Schools," explores productivity definitions and measurements. Chapter 6, "Achieving Goal 1: Promoting Higher Achievement in a Cost-Efficient Way," describes the use of incentives that empower schools and encourage cost-efficient improvements in achievement; reviews site-based management, charter schools, contracting with private firms; and concludes with an assessment of the empirical evidence supporting choice. Chapter 7, "Achieving Goal 2: Breaking the Nexus," explains the connection between funding inequities and poor achievement, stressing the role of technology, school-community linkages, and potential of vouchers. Chapter 8, "Achieving Goal 3: Raising Revenue Fairly and Efficiently," assesses the fairness of property taxes, and evaluates suggested alternatives. Chapter 9, "Conclusion," stresses the importance of balancing values to achieve educational finance equity, adequacy, and fairness. (Contains 38 pages of endnotes.) (TEJ)

Download or read book Beyond Test Scores written by Jack Schneider and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Test scores are the go-to metric of policy makers and anxious parents looking to place their children in the best schools. Yet standardized tests are a poor way to measure school performance. Using the diverse urban school district of Somerville MA as a case study, Jack Schneider’s team developed a new framework to assess educational effectiveness.

Download or read book Adequacy Accountability and the Future of Public Education Funding written by Dennis Patrick Leyden and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-06-02 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about public education reform and the future of pubHc education funding. Given the many articles, books, and conferences that have focused on the issue of public education reform, it is reasonable to ask whether the world needs still another volume on this subject. In my defense, I would argue that, although there is a large literature on public education reform, there is precious little that tries to sketch the big picture. Too often, both in research and in practice, it is easy to lose sight of the forest, for all the focus on the individual trees. While such detailed analysis is of critical value, that value derives both from its specificity and from its ability to fit into a larger, coherent whole. Unfortunately, our understanding of the public education process is still incomplete and disconnected, particularly with regard to the connections between research, policy, and practice. This book is an attempt to step back for a moment to get one's bearings before jumping headlong back into the forest. It is my hope that this book will be of value to a wide variety of reader- researchers in departments of economics and schools of education, policy makers at all levels, and, of course, the practitioners slogging away in the trenches.

Download or read book Financing Public Schools written by Kern Alexander and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financing Public Schools moves beyond the basics of financing public elementary and secondary education to explore the historical, philosophical, and legal underpinnings of a viable public school system. Coverage includes the operational aspects of school finance, including issues regarding teacher salaries and pensions, budgeting for instructional programs, school transportation, and risk management. Diving deeper than other school finance books, the authors explore the political framework within which schools must function, discuss the privatization of education and its effects on public schools, offer perspectives regarding education as an investment in human capital, and expertly explain complex financial and economic issues. This comprehensive text provides the tools to apply the many and varied fiscal concepts and practices that are essential for aspiring public school administrators who aim to provide responsible stewardship for their students. Special Features: "Definitional Boxes" and "Key Terms" throughout chapters enhance understanding of difficult concepts. Coverage of legal, political, and historical issues provides a broader context and more complex understanding of school finance. Offers in-depth exploration of business management of financial resources, including fiscal accounting, school facilities, school transportation, financing with debt, and the nuances of school budgeting techniques.

Download or read book Fund the Child written by Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, Washington, DC. and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Education funding today is a mess, and a solution is needed that addresses its biggest problems: most disadvantaged students do not receive the funding they need; red tape and overhead waste time and money; and new types of education options, like charter schools, are starved for dollars. Unfortunately, until now, so-called solutions have consisted of nothing more than soothing slogans and gimmicks. But a broad, bipartisan coalition now urges a new method of funding the nation's public schools--one that finally ensures the students who need the most receive it, that empowers school leaders to make key decisions, and that opens the door to public school choice. It is a 100 percent solution to the most pressing problems in public school funding--and it is called Weighted Student Funding. This proposal's signatories call on policymakers to transform the school funding system in service of meeting the nation's high ambitions for student learning. Weighted Student Funding, the best hope for achieving equity and accommodating the nation's new diversity of options, is a system of school funding based on five principles and would be much fairer than the current system: (1) Funding should follow the child, on a per-student basis, to the public school that he/she attends; (2) Per-student funding should vary according to the child's need and other relevant circumstances; (3) It should arrive at the school as real dollars (i.e., not teaching positions, ratios, or staffing norms) that can be spent flexibly, with accountability systems focused more on results and less on inputs, programs, or activities; (4) These principles for allocating money to schools should apply to all levels (e.g., federal funds going to states, state funds going to districts, districts to schools); and (5) Funding systems should be simplified and made transparent. In recognizing that successfully moving to weighted student funding is challenging, this report considers a whole range of design challenges: what funds to include in the system; how to set the weights that determine the funding provided for each child; how to handle tricky issues such as restrictive teacher seniority rules and local tax funding; and how to ensure that students attending all kinds of public schools are fairly funded. The report also tackles a set of implementation challenges: how to identify and classify students; how to build the capacity of schools and systems to handle new responsibilities; how to build broad support for the new approach; and how to make the transition from where the nation is now to where it needs to go. (Contains 80 endnotes.) [This report was published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Additional funding for this project was provided by the Walton Family Foundation.].

Download or read book The Shame of the Nation written by Jonathan Kozol and published by Crown. This book was released on 2006-08-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 1980s, when the federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, segregation of black children has reverted to its highest level since 1968. In many inner-city schools, a stick-and-carrot method of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons is now used with students. Meanwhile, as high-stakes testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal education has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand by schools that serve the mainstream of society. Filled with the passionate voices of children, principals, and teachers, and some of the most revered leaders in the black community, The Shame of the Nation pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens.

Download or read book Schoolhouses Courthouses and Statehouses written by Eric A. Hanushek and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improving public schools through performance-based funding Spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public-school funding, the United States now spends more per student on K-12 education than almost any other country. Yet American students still achieve less than their foreign counterparts, their performance has been flat for decades, millions of them are failing, and poor and minority students remain far behind their more advantaged peers. In this book, Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth trace the history of reform efforts and conclude that the principal focus of both courts and legislatures on ever-increasing funding has done little to improve student achievement. Instead, Hanushek and Lindseth propose a new approach: a performance-based system that directly links funding to success in raising student achievement. This system would empower and motivate educators to make better, more cost-effective decisions about how to run their schools, ultimately leading to improved student performance. Hanushek and Lindseth have been important participants in the school funding debate for three decades. Here, they draw on their experience, as well as the best available research and data, to show why improving schools will require overhauling the way financing, incentives, and accountability work in public education.

Download or read book Waiting for Gonski written by Tom Greenwell and published by NewSouth Publishing. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is education in Australia failing? Where did we go wrong, and how do we fix it? The Gonski Review seemed like a breakthrough. Commissioned by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and chaired by leading businessman David Gonski, the 2011 review made clear that school education policy wasn’t working, and placed a spotlight on the troubling and growing gap between the educational outcomes of disadvantaged children and their more privileged peers. Gonski proposed a model that provided targeted funding to disadvantaged students based on need, a solution that promised to close the gaps and improve overall achievement. And yet, over a decade later, the problems have only worsened. Educational outcomes for Australian schoolchildren continue to decline, and there is a growing correlation between social disadvantage and educational under-achievement. So why hasn’t Gonski worked, and what should we do now? Written by teachers Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor, Waiting for Gonski examines how Australia has failed its schools and offers inspired solutions to help change education for the better. ‘A forensic and gripping analysis of the power plays and vested interests that flipped Gonski from a needs-based, sector-blind funding scheme to its exact opposite. Greenwell and Bonnor even dare to float some ideas about how we might unravel the unholy mess that education funding has become.’ — Jane Caro, novelist, writer and social commentator ‘School funding arguments cut straight to core questions of national identity and this book is a tremendous feat of history and economics which privileges understanding over judgment. Greenwell and Bonnor present a definitive and clear account of how we got into this mess, and they offer bold ideas for how we might get out of it.’ — Bri Lee, writer, journalist, activist and author of Who Gets to be Smart and Eggshell Skull ‘Waiting for Gonski forensically maps the sweetheart deals, spin and threats that cynical vested interests have wielded over and over to maintain their own privilege, in the process damaging Australia’s future and throwing our most vulnerable students under a metaphorical bus. Read it and weep. Then agitate.’ — Marion Maddox, Honorary Professor of Politics, Macquarie University and author of Taking God to School: The End of Australia’s Egalitarian Education? ‘When Gough Whitlam broke the stalemate on “state aid” he hoped that the Schools Commission headed by my old mentor, Professor Peter Karmel, would provide equal opportunity for all students, particularly for “poor Catholic kids”. Unfortunately, the powerful and greedy private and Church lobbyists have subverted that hope. They have lobbied all governments to protect the privileged at the expense of millions of children in public schools and some private schools. The virtue of this book is that it places the failure of the Gonski reforms within the larger story of state aid in Australia.’ — John Menadue, publisher of Pearls & Irritations, who’s had a distinguished career both in the private sector and in the Public Service ‘Rigorous research compellingly presented, a sharp account of the highs and lows of the Gonski rollercoaster. This book offers both a cautionary tale and some excellent advice: we can do better for the nation’s schoolchildren.’ — Helen Proctor, Professor in Education History and Policy, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney ‘Sometimes education systems need to choose a new way to address old problems. That remains Australia’s challenge. Waiting for Gonski is a must-read for all policymakers, educators, and parents who want to know why we ended up having one of the most unequal school systems today and how we can rebuild it so that all children will have a fair go in education that they deserve.’ — Pasi Sahlberg, Professor of Education, Gonski Institute for Education, University of New South Wales and author of Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland

Download or read book American Public School Finance written by William A. Owings and published by Wadsworth Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: School principals, superintendents, and other administrative personnel must have a solid understanding of the general finance and appropriation structure of federal, state, and local government as well as the ability to formulate and manage school budgets. With the guidance of this new text, educational leadership candidates preparing for such roles will learn the realities of school finance policy, issues, and applications. By providing critical analysis and by including unique chapters on misconceptions about school finance, demographic issues, spending and student achievement, and future trends, authors William Owings and Leslie Kaplan exceed the coverage of these topics as found in other texts.