Determining the level and distribution of special education funding is an ongoing issue. Attempting to meet the extensive range of students' needs, while balancing funding coming from federal, state, and local sources leads to uneven funding burdens and questions about whether all student needs are being met. Traditionally, funding for special…

The article is an analysis which focuses on the years after the Great Recession, to show the interplay between federal and state policies. The first year after American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) federal stimulus funds ended, Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, coincided with new federal Pell Grant eligibility restrictions. State appropriations for…

This study estimates the effect of state appropriations on the graduation rates of freshman cohorts by race/ethnicity. Data were obtained for public four-year institutions (n = 415) representing six freshman cohorts between 2007 and 2012. Hybrid regression models indicated that a ten percent increase in appropriations would yield a percentage…

This article compares state expenditure data to see how the operating budgets of public community colleges specifically, and public higher education institutions generally, have fared over the past 30 years. Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) have long tracked major state expenditure categories, including the…

Facing a 32% drop in state funding of higher education over the last decade, state universities are reluctant to raise tuition and, even if willing, many state governments have placed limits on how much tuition could be raised. If teaching and research are normal goods in the utility functions of university presidents, public universities must…

North Carolina special education funding utilizes a dollar allotment per identified student, applying a funding cap based on a percentage of district average daily membership. While representing an attempt to reduce over-identification of students with special needs the funding cap has led to large systematic disparities in district fiscal…

This paper examines how colleges respond to the introduction of broad merit aid programs. Previous research has emphasized the impact of merit aid on enrollment, student choices, and post-matriculation outcomes. Yet much less is known about how state-implemented merit aid programs affect colleges' financial decisions. To explore impacts, college…

The Great Recession induced by the financial crisis accelerated the decades of declining state funding support for U.S. public higher education, while simultaneously bringing increased political pressures for demonstrating improvements in the operating efficiencies among all universities and colleges. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First,…

As widely reported and documented, the coronavirus pandemic hit schools hard. To address challenges caused by COVID-19, the U.S. Congress created and funded the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). While educators and the field have learned much during the era of reforming high poverty schools, the challenge to improve…

State-level performance-based funding (PBF) policies are an increasingly common way to allocate funds to public colleges and universities. While a growing body of research has examined whether these policies are effective in improving student outcomes, little is known about how colleges respond to PBF policies. In this paper, we examine whether…

An increase of over 100% in program expenditures for the Pell Grant program over a five year period of time, from $14.7 billion in the 2007-08 award year to $33.4 billion in the 2011-12 award year, places an otherwise popular program under scrutiny. This article considers the factors and options informing federal policy related to the Pell Grant…

A policy analysis of Florida's 10-factor Performance-Based Funding system for state universities. The focus of the article is on the system of performance metrics developed by the state Board of Governors and their impact on institutions and their missions. The paper also discusses problems and issues with the metrics, their ongoing evolution, and…

Reviews the history of the budgetary procedures of the New Jersey Department of Higher Education and outlines the development of the grant program budgeting as a major source of revenue since 1984. (MD)

This article presents a cross-section, 50-state analysis of school finance legislation from the 2000 session and a seven-year trend analysis, dating back to 1994. The framework for analysis was grounded in the theory of intergovernmental grants. Although the 2000 legislative session was an active one, the total number of bills passed represented a…

Changes in the financial situations among the second tier of liberal arts colleges between 1996 and 2001 are documented using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System financial and enrollment data. These data show large disparities in net assets per student, expenses per student, and the subsidies per full-paying student and the average…