It is generally accepted that the nation's community colleges are underfunded, especially given the job that society expects of them. Accordingly, practitioners and scholars have long argued for new revenue sources and funding models. This essay briefly explains one such alternative model, namely funding adequacy. This concept has a long history…

Since the early 2000s, billionaires have treated the Denver Public School District as a Neo-liberal education experiment. Using a tangled web of astroturf groups, nonprofits, and training organizations, billionaires have hijacked this public school district, leaving some schools, students, and democracy behind. In this report, Denver's Mike…

All states have a formula that determines how state funding is distributed to school districts. Most state formulas anticipate or require that school districts raise some funds locally and adjust state allocations based on that anticipated local share of school funding. In theory, state funding formulas attempt to provide school districts with the…

Nearly every state has flaws in how it funds public education, particularly when it comes to equitable funding for historically underserved students. While challenges vary by state, there are five common pitfalls in education finance equity: (1) Formulas do not fully account for differences in student learning needs; (2) There are too many school…

Property taxes are the most common mechanism to generate local revenue for public school systems but are also a long-standing source of inequity. Policymakers and advocates should be aware of the challenges created by local funding mechanisms in their states and consider potential policy solutions to produce more equitable education funding. This…

English learners (ELs) are one of the fastest-growing student groups in the U.S. K-12 system, making up about one in 10 students enrolled in public schools nationwide. Despite research showing that EL students need more resources and supports to be successful in school, funding at the federal, state, and local levels to provide those additional…

With college-loan debt making many rethink the country's college-for-all mindset, apprenticeships are becoming more attractive. Before the pandemic, the number of people starting apprenticeships had more than doubled over the previous 10 years. That progress stalled during COVID's height, but data for 2021, the most recent available, show that…

Further education (FE) is both the most diverse and the most misunderstood sector in English education. FE colleges are sites of social and economic inclusion and personal and collective transformation, offering routes to citizenship, employment and lifelong learning. But the sustained funding squeeze over the last decade means that FE is also in…

Universities face an uncertain funding environment and turbulent marketplace. Financial scenario modelling offers a potential mechanism to assist in navigating a way forward. Our previous paper on UK universities' practice found some variation in the sophistication of the approaches taken, but the overall impression was of a relatively simple…

In 2015, the governments of United Nations Member States agreed on an ambitious agenda for people, planet and prosperity. Support for the unprecedentedly ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda was obtained, however, on the condition that there would not be any accompanying enforcement or accountability…

Smart Start Illinois is a multiyear plan to provide every child with access to preschool, increase funding to child care providers to raise wages and quality, and reach more vulnerable families with early support. Launched with a $300 million investment in the fiscal year 2024 state budget, Smart Start Illinois has already yielded results. The…

In 2022, the state department released new standards and a competency-based education curriculum. Simultaneously, the Toledo Creek School District has experienced an unprecedent shift in the student population demographics. The shift has resulted in two distinct zones, east and west, with income averages on the two extremes of the income spectrum.…

Many recent critical reforms in state school finance systems have been catalyzed by the courthouse, not the statehouse. Advocates for equity-focused school finance reforms often consider legal action as the best path to significant policy changes. This brief discusses state-level lawsuits on adequacy and equity grounds and their outcomes.

"Campus Economics" provides college and university administrators, trustees, and faculty with an essential understanding of how college finances actually work. Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson explain the concepts needed to analyze the pros, the cons, and the trade-offs of difficult decisions, and offer a common language for discussing…

Former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Chris Husbands responds to the financial and policy challenges facing the English higher education by sketching out four different plausible futures: Scenario 1: The evolution of the present; Scenario 2: Delivering the 2010 vision; Scenario 3: A place-based tertiary system; Scenario 4: A differentiated system.…