As more and more cities and states diversify the educational options available to parents and students, creating magnet, open-enrollment, small school, career and technical, charter, and private school opportunities, educational choice markets need to become a part of the regulation conversation. In this report, Mike McShane examines the…

The economic meltdown has hit U.S. college campuses, and higher education is on the chopping block in state budgets, with cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars already approved and hundreds of millions in more cuts on the way. As veteran legislators, the authors have seen this story play out before in previous recessions. The mindset on…

A study examining factors influencing decisions state legislators make about school finance focuses on votes in Michigan, Missouri, and Washington. Each of these states passed major school finance reform legislation during the 1970's and used open legislative procedures in which individual legislators were free to vote their consciences.…

In the wake of increasing concern regarding school safety, state lawmakers will be faced with difficult decisions regarding statewide policies and the funding of local programs. To assist lawmakers with this process, this report provides an overview of the most prominent issues legislators may face, as well as a framework within which to address…

In hopes of shedding light on how public school leaders can better advocate on the state level for the needs of their schools and their students, The School Administrator turned to policymakers in different settings and with different political leanings. They invited a trio--a Republican state legislator from the Chicago suburbs, a rural…

This paper examines various ways in which states, colleges, and universities are balancing tensions between demands for greater institutional autonomy and demands for greater accountability to state legislatures. Noted are the states' varying fiscal situations, mixed messages on autonomy given by state governments to institutions, and increasing…

Individual members of state legislatures wield the greatest influence in state level policy formation. This was one of the findings of a study that identified the power and influence context of state-level policymaking. Data were gathered from six states (Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois) using an instrument…

The purpose of this study was: (1) to examine state legislature agendas for providing access to use of technology for educational purposes; (2) to review legislative policy concerns and priorities related to the role of technology in postsecondary education; and (3) to examine the effect of legislative views and actions regarding technology on…