The costs of attending four-year colleges and universities in the United States have steadily increased over four decades leading to high levels of student debt and many obstacles for low-income students. The analysis presented appraises the extent of the cost and affordability problems, debunking the sensationalistic claims that are common in…

States invest in public higher education in two primary ways: through direct funds to institutions (general operating support) and direct funds to students in the form of state financial aid programs (student grant aid). General operating support is the larger of the two funding categories, totaling $80.8 billion in 2019, while state financial aid…

COVID-19 has been a challenging issue for America's public schools and students. The pandemic highlights many issues that already impacted education but have now become far more transparent as the forced school building shutdowns and transition to online learning have spread across the nation. For the 2020-21 school year, the concern is not only…

This exploratory study responds to the criticism that non-instructional faculty or "academic professionals" at American universities are the cause of "administrative bloat." The purpose of the study was to build from the work of Rhoades (1998) and Kane (2007) to examine whether academic professionals at an R-1 (very-high…

This resource is designed to be a one-stop shop for all the existing research on private school choice in the United States. This year's edition is updated with the research published since the last edition. Since the first modern-day voucher program launched in Milwaukee in 1990, researchers have studied private school choice programs. Few…

The COVID-19 pandemic brings to the fore strengths and weaknesses in many public policies, including higher education. There are at least three separate but related areas where institutions of higher learning have been stressed by COVID-19: financing, issues related to the logistics of learning, and inequality. These problems are especially…

Since 1979 more than thirty states have adopted "performance funding" for public institutions of higher education. Under performance funding, a portion of the state appropriations for each institution is determined by the institution's achievement of performance goals on such metrics as retention and graduation. We argue that several…

This annual publication of "The ABCs of School Choice" is a comprehensive, data-rich guide to every private school choice program in America. This edition of "The ABCs of School Choice" defines each of the four types of school choice: education savings accounts, vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and individual tax credits and…

Governors' State of the State Addresses signal policy priorities for the coming year and allow state policymakers to get a sense of trending issues in their state and other states of interest. This year to date, 44 governors have delivered their address, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education reverberated across many of them.…

The State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report is produced annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) to broaden understanding of the context and consequences of public policy decisions in each state that contribute to public higher education funding levels and funding distributions across states and…

Research shows that a diverse teacher workforce benefits all students -- especially historically underserved students in American education, in particular Black students. With a historic pool of federal education funds now available to help address the effects of the pandemic, school districts and states have a unique window of opportunity to…

Opponents of education choice often make two arguments about its effect on rural areas: (1) education choice will not help in rural areas because there are few or no alternatives to the district school system; and (2) education choice will destroy the district school system because so many students will leave for alternative options. These two…

After an active election season, State of the State addresses offer time for new and incumbent governors to outline policy priorities and celebrate state accomplishments. Since 2005, we've tracked, analyzed and identified education policy trends in governors' State of the State addresses to help you understand trending education issues across…

This report examines how state and local school funding decisions can either advance or hinder equity, focusing on the relationship between funding and the demographics of the students who districts served as of 2015 and looking at how the revenues of districts that serve higher percentages of students living in poverty or students of color…

The data presented in this report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States -- with respect to economics, geography, and politics -- the level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis. Thus,…