The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is the national voice for academic and professional staff. CAUT represents more than 72,000 teachers, librarians, researchers, general staff, and other academic professionals at 125 post-secondary institutions across the country. CAUT works actively in the public interest to improve the…

Over the past several months, news headlines have been filled with stories that illustrate the realities of an underfunded public education system. All across British Columbia (BC), school districts are facing "tough budget decisions" and gaping budget shortfalls. BC continues to fall behind other provinces in funding. Funding for…

From Fall 2019 through Spring 2020, The Hunt Institute released a series of policy briefs, "Attainment for All: Postsecondary Pathways," that highlighted scalable state-level strategies to boost postsecondary attainment rates among specific student subpopulations including high school graduates, first-generation students, and adult…

Universities across the world have faced enormous disruption as a result of the pandemic, with those that can, forced to move their activities online. This rapid shift has particular significance in a Commonwealth context, where stark disparities in internet connectivity and infrastructure persist -- and for Association of Commonwealth…

The "statewide system of support," a feature of Congress's 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provided an organizational framework for a "managerial" approach to school improvement that was accelerated in No Child Left Behind (2001). When Congress temporarily flooded states with economic…

The Charter Schools Program (CSP) is the nation's only source of dedicated federal funding to support the creation, expansion, and replication of public charter schools. Since FY2019, the CSP has been flat funded at $440 million. The CSP amounts to less than 1% of federal spending on K-12 education, however, it has a substantial impact on the…

These technical appendixes accompany the study, "Funding California Schools When Budgets Fall Short." The study explores how the Great Recession impacted funding for California's K-12 system, how prepared districts are for potential funding cuts, and what policy choices could forge a more financially resilient system. Using data on…

Our nation spends approximately $650 billion per year on our K-12 education system. To understand how those dollars impact students, we need to examine spending where it reaches them: at the school level. The document, developed by the National Center, describes a national data archive that uses all elements of Interstate Financial Reporting (IFR)…

Amid the global pandemic, community colleges nationwide found themselves challenged like never before. More than 21 million Americans lost their jobs in March and April. How would this economic collapse affect college revenue streams, or fall semester enrollment? Would campuses even be open in the fall? Would students continue to register for…

This article addresses considerations around investing in early childhood efforts across the globe. The authors describe diverse early childhood approaches with a specific focus on strategies to fund and sustain this work. They also discuss the leadership efforts necessary to advocate for funding early childhood services and reflect on challenges…

A.C.A. §6-61-234 (Act 148 of 2017) directs the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board (AHECB) to adopt polices developed by the Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) necessary to implement a productivity-based funding model for state-supported institutions of higher education. Productivity-based funding is a mechanism to align…

Higher education is in crisis. Revenues from all sources are expected to decrease at both public and private universities. The current crisis will raise existential questions for small and mid-tier institutions. Only universities with massive endowments and highly competitive admissions will escape the effects of the coming enrollment cliff.…

To prepare for the future, state policymakers can learn from the past -- specifically, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 Recession. Drawing on lessons learned from both time periods, the authors of this brief set out to answer the following questions: (1) What lessons from past economic crises might help state policymakers and advocates prepare…

The U.S. Department of Labor approved the first nationally registered K-12 teacher apprenticeship program in January 2022, opening the door to a rapidly growing pathway for prospective teachers. By October 2022, Texas had an approved program, and the Department of Labor has now approved registered teacher apprenticeships in more than 30 states.…

Unlike vouchers and tax credit scholarships that do not allow parents to customize their children's education, Education savings accounts (ESAs) provide funding to pay for part-time classes at public and private schools, tutoring, curricula, services for special needs, and more. As navigating the opportunities that come with ESAs can be difficult,…