Presented here is a model developed at Santa Barbara City College (California) for assessing vocational and non-vocational program costs. The primary purpose of the project was to compare costs during 1971-72 for these two types of programs. On an institutional average, vocational instructional costs appeared to be higher than non-vocational,…

A vocational teacher, assessing the significance of the new federal legislation for Florida teachers, reviews techniques that can be applied to the decision-making process of vocational educators responsible for the allocation of dollars to various vocational programs. (JT)

Medicaid helps finance certain health services that eligible children, including those with disabilities, receive in schools, such as diagnostic screening and physical therapy. Medicaid is also authorized to reimburse schools' costs for certain administrative activities, such as conducting outreach and providing referrals to qualified providers.…

This booklet reports on a study of food service functions in Texas schools. The report contains examples taken from previous school reviews and is based on the state Comptroller's instruction that the best practices identified by the Texas School Performance Review team be communicated to all the state's school districts. Some examples present…

Educational technology so far has been mostly used as an add-on to existing inputs, whereas its chief use should be as a substitute for existing inputs, especially teachers. This substitution is presumably easiest in higher education, where teachers are not needed to keep order in class. Author presents a framework for thinking about costs, which…

The author writes in favor of gearing educational systems to long-term manpower requirements as he responds to Professor Mark Blaug's article ("Prospects" v2, n4, Winter 1973) which advocates cost-benefit analysis as a tool for educational planning. (JH)

Not all data for a program evaluation may be equally valuable, and costs of collection may vary when using several methods to obtain data from several sources. An approach to maximize information yield for a fixed, limited budget using a mathematical technique known as linear programming is described and generalized. (Author/CM)

Although California schools are experiencing cutbacks, the cause may be declining enrollment rather than Proposition 13. A less debatable result of Proposition 13 is greater state control of education's purse strings. (Author/JM)

Describes the relationship of design and production values needed in the allocation of resources in instructional development projects. It is suggested that design value is a constant while production value varies with need. (CMV)

A system developed at the College of William and Mary that attributes all expenditures to the specific fund-raising programs for which they were incurred is described. It is suggested that this system can be utilized by other colleges and universities to determine the actual costs of operating these programs. (Author/SF)

Uses state-collected data and microlevel indicators to examine the allocation of professional staff across elementary, secondary, and administrative schooling levels and program areas within New York State. Case studies of four districts were constructed around a distinction between disposition and utilization of teaching resources. There are…

Describes the development and use of a policy model and algorithm for allocating continuing education (CE) resources in a large national health system. The algorithm uses a two-factor model, basing facility CE allocations on the amount of CE need and price differences in accessing CE sources. (Author/JOW)

Two surveys of 120 North American medical schools obtained 63 responses in 1986 and 58 in 1988, finding that the number and types of continuing medical education (CME) programs, enrollments, and fees increased; self-study offerings increased; and documentation of resource allocation and the cost effectiveness of various CME methods assumed greater…

Maintaining a quality college alumni program on a small budget requires careful analysis of services and may involve painful decisions. This process should begin with a broad, strategic review of mission, programming, audiences, and services. Finding other funding sources and increasing cost-consciousness can also help keep some activities funded.…

The three articles of this special section address developments and prospects for economic analyses of education policy. Issues addressed relate resources to outcomes in education and cost benefit analysis in education. Balancing economics and educational improvement is a focus throughout. (SLD)