How might school funds be spent more effectively in today's uncertain environment? This up-to-date volume explores a range of ideas to help schools and districts better manage their resources, including: how to rethink staffing and management to get more value for employee compensation; how policymakers might revisit pension arrangements in ways…

As the Public School Forum enters its 31st year, they continue the tradition of forecasting the ten issues most likely to impact public schools across the state in "Top Ten Education Issues for 2017." As they do each year, they have included in the list issues they believe will be the top education issues for the year, as well as issues…

For nearly 20 years, the Public School Forum of North Carolina has been publishing its annual forecast of the ten issues most likely to impact K-12 schools across the state. They offer an overview of the issues and a set of principles they hope will guide consideration of the issue by all federal, state, and local leaders who understand that…

Creating smart, coherent education policy is painstaking work; there are technical, budgetary, and political challenges at almost every turn. But it is some of the most important work that state leaders can undertake. As Ohioans prepared to elect a new governor in late 2018, we at the Fordham Institute began rolling out a set of policy proposals…

This report serves as a quick reference guide for elected officials to compare key education policies and data in their states to the rest of the nation. The first section highlights major state policies for all 50 states in both table and chart formats (see Summary Charts ). The second section provides key state data, such as per-student spending…

A five-step method for evaluating proposed policies for educational reform is suggested and explicated in this booklet. The five steps are as follows: (1) to identify the problems toward which reforms are directed, (2) to identify the policies designed to address each problem, (3) to identify assumptions about the problems and the proposed…

Federal spending on education has risen steadily over the past three decades to unprecedented levels. However, research indicates that "money neutral" solutions, such as local control and parent choice, are the real keys to educational reform. Educational spending, after correction for inflation, has increased each year since the 1929/30…

To ensure reliable, accurate, and timely data capable of monitoring the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, "The Condition of Education." This year's report presents 46 indicators of important developments and trends in U.S.…

In 1986 the National Governors' Association defined the following areas of educational policy targeted for improvement: (1) leadership and management; (2) teaching; (3) parent involvement and choice; (4) readiness; (5) technology; (6) school facilities; and (7) college quality. In addition to profiling new state initiatives in each of these seven…