Prior to Poland's transition from central planning to a market system, which began in 1990, schools of business were non-existent in that country. Instead, university level instruction on economics during the socialist period was closely tied to ideological priorities, and limited to imparting skills suitable for planned economy. All universities…

The politics of rural educational leadership are both intense and concentrated. Rural educational leaders need to be savvy and politically skilled if they are to inspire educational stakeholders and accomplish organizational objectives. The local school system is an organization with a political culture that can be characterized as a competitive…

As state tax revenues plummet, some lawmakers and higher-education leaders are once again looking at loosening the bonds between state governments and public colleges to save money and give colleges the freedom to bolster their bottom lines in new ways. Over the past two decades, college officials have often lamented the growing need to secure…

There are currently three categories of independent colleges and universities: Those that are flush with resources, those that are stable but suffering from the effects of the recession, and those whose financial stress has been exacerbated to the breaking point. In this article, the author poses solutions that may represent useful options for…

Sponsored by the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), the second edition of this groundbreaking handbook assembles in one place the existing research-based knowledge in education finance and policy, with particular attention to elementary and secondary education. Chapters from the first edition have been fully updated and revised…

The neoliberal reform arrived at the market of higher education with the intention of introducing private dynamics into public organizations. Through this strategy, the objective was to improve efficiency by promoting intra- and intersectoral competition. The introduction of performance funding shifted the concept of accountability for…

Higher education in Russia is currently being reformed. A standardized computer-graded test and educational vouchers were introduced to make higher education more accessible, fund it more effectively, and reduce corruption in admissions to public colleges. The voucher project failed and the test faces furious opposition. This paper considers…

The past two decades have seen a significant shift in the financial model of American higher education, laying groundwork for a transformation that could reshape people's understanding of the academy. The shift--toward increasing degrees of privatization--is unmistakable and has affected every American college and university to varying extents.…

An analysis of spending trends that is designed to discourage policy makers' focus on finding new revenue rather than reining in spending suggests that the model for financing colleges has reinforced educational inequities and failed to increase the rate at which students graduate. According to the analysis, "serious fault lines" in the current…

Public financing of education in the developing world context combines public and private funds, and the utilisation of fees is seen as a way of complementing state resources. In South Africa the new government in 1994 permitted schools to charge fees, a policy that has provoked much controversy. While different aspects of this policy have been…

School choice programs have proliferated around the world since the 1980s. Following this international trend, the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) was launched in 1991 to revitalize Hong Kong's private school sector. DSS schools receive a similar subsidy per student to that received by aided schools, but they may charge fees and have greater control…

There are very real barriers to using people, time, money, and technology well in today's public schools systems. To begin to break down these barriers, the Education Resource Strategies (ERS) has created a framework to prioritize seven urgent restructuring priorities. The authors have found that these areas represent the largest opportunities for…

Billions of education dollars are trapped each year. At this time of continued budget shortfalls when every dollar spent on education must yield maximum returns in student outcomes--states are frequently tying the hands of districts. While funding adequacy and equity must remain a priority for states, ensuring that limited resources are used as…

A policy sociology approach is taken to examine the connections between neo-liberalism, post-secondary provincial education (PSE) policy in Canada and the impact of those policies. Our thesis regarding the broad political economy of PSE is that over the last two decades the adoption of this ideology has been a major cause of some dramatic changes…

Private schools were very prosperous in Shanghai during the Republican period. Shanghai Municipal Educational Bureau adopted a pattern of indirect management, especially attaching importance to normalizing and guiding the mechanism for operating a school by taking the basic measures for the registration administration. Meanwhile, appropriate…