Presenters at the State of the States Roundtable session at the 2014 National Education Finance Conference in Louisville were invited to submit their papers for publication. These papers address the following topics: (1) State issues affecting P-12 and/or higher education funding; (2) Funding priorities/trends for P-12 and/or higher education; (3)…

In February 2015 a large group of scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in P-20 finance issues gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the National Education Finance Academy's annual conference, on February 25-27, 2015 to discuss, among multiple topics, the state of P-20 finance in all 50 states. There were 35 states represented in the…

The use of performance funding, which provides institutions with income for educational results, was tested in Tennessee. Traditionally, the budget has been separated from performance evaluation, and state formulas have evolved from the need for funding to be objective, comparable, and predictable. The Performance Funding Project in Tennessee,…

A sample of teachers, principals, supervisors, superintendents, school board members, and county commissioners across Tennessee responded to questionnaires concerning funding patterns and revenue sources for public education. Except for the commissioners, who are the funding agents for school systems in Tennessee and are responsible for setting…

Ways of measuring the fiscal capacity of school systems are examined in this paper, which presents a representative tax system model. Fiscal capacity is influenced by factors other than tax base size; the "ideal" model should address adjustments for variations in cost across communities and school systems. The first section examines the…

The use of funding/allocation formulas in public higher education and the efficacy of Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) taxonomies as the basis for discipline cost differentials in Tennessee are examined. Major criteria on which funding/allocation formulas should be based and weaknesses in existing formulas are also identified.…

As a response to the concerns associated with the allocation of state resources to institutions of higher education, several states have developed budget formulas to derive estimates of the institutional financial requirements. Formulas, however, were developed during a period of rapid growth, and might be unresponsive to institutional needs…

Tennessee data were analyzed longitudinally from 1979-80 to 1987-88 to compare statewide special education practice associated with two student-based formulas for funding disbursement: "flat" versus "weighted.""Flat" grants, used from 1979-80 to 1982-83, provided a fixed amount of funds per child, teacher, or…

The public school funding lawsuits that have been filed over the last two decades indicate that many people are not satisfied with the existing levels of school funding. After several years of trying to bring about changes through different avenues, a group called Tennessee Small School Systems filed suit in 1988 to have the system of financing…

The relationship between school system financial and demographic data and student achievement on the science subsection of the Tennessee statewide standardized test was studied to determine if systems that served large numbers of low income students had been as successful as more affluent systems in improving student achievement. System-level data…

A pilot project in performance funding at Tennessee Tech University is described. The pilot project was part of a statewide "Performance Funding Project" sponsored by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). The Performance Funding Project was designed to improve the formula appropriations process by determining the feasibility…

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission's (THEC) use of a performance criterion in funding higher education is discussed, along with the results of evaluating this initiative. Information on program quality and improvement efforts is a factor in determining the budgetary allocation for each state institution. With funding from the Kellogg…

Public Schools for Cooperative Research (PSCR) is a school study council located in East Tennessee. The PSCR Institute is a two-year program devoted to the theme "Educational Planning, Communication and Community Decision Making." Materials included in this publication represent the views expressed by some of the consultants who…

A performance funding policy adopted in Tennessee in 1979, which recognizes and rewards instructional performance through the state funding formula, is described. The schedule permits institutions to earn an additional 2 percent of their educational and general appropriations based on an evaluation of institutional instructional performance on…