This report offers an analysis of school finance litigation during 1998. It summarizes cases in New Jersey, Ohio, Arizona, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and New York. These states were sued due to failure to provide a thorough and efficient system of common schools, ineffective efforts to provide equitable financing to poorer school…

This journal issue, which is part of a series of wide-ranging debates on major educational topics in Australia, examines three major points connected to school resourcing. First is the shift of emphasis in the discourse on resources from inputs to outcomes. Second is the extent to which schools ought to be self-managed and the possible conflict…

In Oregon, many schools and school districts are turning to private funding to help sustain and enrich the quality of education in their districts. Their vehicle of choice: the local education foundation (LEF). This report describes the nature of private fund raising for public schools and examines its uses as a partial remedy for budget…

This analysis used national data to evaluate changes in state higher education appropriations, state revenues, and regional differences in support for higher education from 1980 to 1992. Data from the United States Bureau of the Census and Illinois State University's Center for Education revealed that between 1980 and 1990 the nation's Gross…

The macroeconomic trends shaping the United States economy and the effects of those trends on higher education are considered. Warning institutions of higher education about possible problems in the economy will place them in a better position to react if necessary. The economic environment is discussed in terms of productivity (goods and services…

The goal of the doctoral dissertation summarized here was to find an equitable school finance plan that applied the same tax rate in all districts and resulted in the smallest variance in the expenditure per weighted pupil unit (WPU) between districts in Arizona for the 1971-72 school year. Six finance plans were developed for analysis and were…

This brief reviews and analyzes issues surrounding public school financing, particularly for Latino communities and elementary school and secondary school education. A review of the current legal debate notes that there have been legal challenges to school financing since 1967, and that rulings have indicated that government has a responsibility…

Strategies and problems facing the small private liberal arts colleges as a group are described. Many of these schools have weathered the financial emergencies of recent years by cutting expenditures to the point where the quality of education is threatened. New measures have been called for to reduce the tuition gap between private and public…

This report summarizes the proposed budgets for U.S. public elementary and secondary education for fiscal year 1998 and describes the budgets and the major factors that influence those budgets. It is the second in a series of "State Fiscal Briefs" on education finance by the Center for the Study of the States. The report is primarily based on…

In the 1989 "Edgewood vs. Kirby" decision, the Supreme Court of Texas ordered the Legislature to correct the inequality in funding between the state's richest and poorest school districts. In response to the court's order, the Legislature recently enacted Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) intended to provide Texas' school districts with equal access…

An overview is presented of the mechanisms for financial support, institutional resources, and institutional accountability that are needed to improve the teaching and learning environment in the California community colleges. Introductory material outlines the educational reforms that have affected the colleges, underscores the need to reaffirm…

"Grapevine" presents timely data on state tax legislation, state appropriations for universities, colleges, and junior colleges, and legislation affecting education beyond the high school. This compilation presents issues of "Grapevine," published between 1977 and 1988, containing such articles on community colleges as: (1) "State 2-Year Colleges…

This brief provides an overview of three recent state court cases in Alabama, Wyoming, and Ohio that uniquely address the constitutionality of state special education finance systems. In each case, the courts found the special education finance systems to be unconstitutional due to inequitable or inadequate funding for children with disabilities.…

This report highlights recent and projected economic trends that affect higher education, focusing on national economic conditions, government support for higher education, students' ability to pay for college, and labor market trends. It found that the U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), is projected to grow at a…

Providing a basis to help Alaskans determine future spending levels and priorities, this report traces how the state spent more than $26 billion in general funds from fiscal years 1981 through 1986 before oil prices crashed and brought state revenues tumbling down with them. Figures indicate that cumulative general fund expenditures over the…