This study attempted to determine the knowledge of Tennessee public school finance on the part of teachers, businessmen, school administrators, elected officials, and industrial workers. Students in a class on public school finance administered the questionnaire to over 1,000 subjects. Results revealed that respondents feel that public education…

Questions of college performance in the United States are inevitably answered in terms of numbers rather than performance. A Tennessee policy links two percent of state funding to outcomes rather than size. The policy has major implications for funding and performance in colleges and other service-oriented institutions. (Author/MLW)

The use of performance funding, which provides institutions with income for educational results, was tested in Tennessee. Traditionally, the budget has been separated from performance evaluation, and state formulas have evolved from the need for funding to be objective, comparable, and predictable. The Performance Funding Project in Tennessee,…

Ways of measuring the fiscal capacity of school systems are examined in this paper, which presents a representative tax system model. Fiscal capacity is influenced by factors other than tax base size; the "ideal" model should address adjustments for variations in cost across communities and school systems. The first section examines the…

The Performance Funding Project of the State of Tennessee is discussed. The Project was instituted to explore the question of whether it is desirable and possible to allocate some portion of state funds to community colleges and universities on a performance effectiveness criterion rather than the current credit hour and enrollment criteria. Major…

In 1988, 66 of Tennessee's rural school districts brought suit against the state government claiming that the school funding system of a local option sales tax discriminates against rural areas. This study examines the effects of increased reliance on local sales tax revenue on Tennessee's school expenditures. Not every county can support a major…

A study was conducted to determine the types of training and educational levels desired for entry-level employees in Tennessee and to obtain employer ratings of entry-level work skills for Tennessee vocational education graduates as compared to nonvocational education graduates. Additionally, 61 Tennessee employers identified by school districts…

Based on the view that the tax structure in Tennessee is inadequate and produces chronic problems, especially for the state's children, this Kids Count report identifies unmet education, health care, and resource needs of the children in Tennessee. Following introductory remarks discussing the current tax structure and state spending, Section 1 of…