The U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in "Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees" (AFSCME) (referred to as "Janus" hereafter) prohibited state and local government worker unions from negotiating collective bargaining agreements with fair share fee arrangements. In this report, the authors…

On February 24, 2017, all of the authors of the state-of-the-state manuscripts published in the "Journal of Education Finance" met in Cincinnati, Ohio, to participate in a roundtable discussion focused on recent legislative actions in 38 states. A majority of those papers were revised to reflect a final report on legislative actions…

Of all the rules that the U.S. Department of Education will have to formulate for the Every Student Succeeds Act, the proposed regulations to monitor that states and districts spend comparable amounts for schools eligible and not eligible to use Title I funds are attracting the most attention. Currently, districts can show comparability based on…

"Wisconsin Public Schools at a Glance" provides in a single page document statistical information on the following topics: (1) Schools & Districts (2019-2020); (2) Staff (2019-2020); (3) School Funding; (4) Students (2019-2020); and (4) Enrollment by School Type (2019-2020). [For "Wisconsin Public Schools at a Glance"…

"Wisconsin Public Schools at a Glance" provides in a single page document statistical information on the following topics: (1) Schools & Districts (2018-19); (2) Staff (2016-17); (3) School Funding; (4) Students (2017-18); and (4) Attendance (2016-17). [For "Wisconsin Public Schools at a Glance" covering 2012-2015, see…

A year ago at ASBO International's Annual Meeting and Expo in Seattle, Washington, school business officials from four states presented a powerful double-session panel on the status of changes in teacher contracts and educational funding in their regions of the country. The presenters have since updated their comments with new information and…

Making robust and reliable information about schools accessible is one of the most powerful ways to foster engagement and promote informed decisions that will shape our communities. Though education data is frequently collected and aggregated at the state level, data is rarely synthesized across cities. This report provides comparable information…

Reform of public schooling has been at the forefront of the national debate over education for more than 25 years. One prominent reform initiative, school chartering, was selected for the study that examined whether a selected school district allocated comparable resources for charter and non-charter schools. The study used the Odden et al.…

When people talk about the future of public universities, they are usually talking about the flagship state universities. Flagship state universities have greatly increased expenditures in the past decade. The goal of the flagship institutions has been to compete with the best private universities, based on the assumptions that state funds will be…

Wisconsin's stagnating state higher-education budget has forced the university to keep faculty salaries far below average. When professors get feelers from elsewhere, they learn that a move can easily mean a 100-percent salary increase--sometimes more. Budget problems have also depleted money for perks that keep faculty members on board--funds for…

The Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) is one of the largest local taxpayer-funded entities in southeastern Wisconsin, ranking fourth in assets and budget behind Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Public Schools, and the City of Milwaukee. The college's fiscal operations are complex and draw on multiple revenue sources, including nearly $150…

This is the 13th annual report on the conditions affecting the Racine Unified School District (RUSD). This year, the analysis again focuses on the long-term historical trends in RUSD and compares the district to nine peer districts across the state. The peer districts are those with the most similar enrollments to RUSD. The report is configured in…

This policy brief describes how the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has approached the objectives of educational equity and adequacy over the past decade and a half, and reveals how their current finance research has begun to explicitly link the level and use of resources with strategies that districts and schools can deploy to…

Replies to James G. Ward's objections to the author's recent "Journal of Education Finance" article, which concluded that comprehensive collective bargaining had no significant effect on teachers' salaries or fringe benefits in Wisconsin school districts during 1979-80. Calls for alternative strategies to improve teachers' economic…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Bush Budget Proposes Spending Freeze for U.S. Department of Education: Title I, Striving Readers, Statewide Data…