Issuing long-term debt can be a complex, multifaceted process. Although the process varies by stare, typically the school business official and the district solicitor work with the financing ream, which includes a financial adviser, bond counsel, underwriter, raring agency, and possibly a bond insurance agent, paying agent, and architect.…

Purpose and Method of Study. The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the relationship between school district expenditures and student academic achievement in 102 public elementary school districts in the state of Oklahoma. The secondary purpose was to investigate the relationship between school district expenditures and…

No other city in the nation more clearly exemplifies the dramatically changing social, political, and economic landscape of America's urban centers than Houston. Houston has transformed from a bi-racial southern city on the bayou to one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in the nation. Houston Independent School District…

One distinction between the markets for corporate and municipal bonds involves institutional constraints that apply to some municipal bond issues. This research focuses on how public finance institutions, in particular explicit debt limits and referenda requirements, affect the borrowing cost of individual school district bond issues. The…

This case, inspired by a real school district scenario, was developed for use in a graduate-level course in school finance. James Spencer had just been selected as the new superintendent of a low-income, 400-student, rural school district in need of many capital improvements. The previous superintendent had refused to hold a bond election because…

The purpose of this study is to develop a costing model for maintenance and operations expenditures among 16 single-campus California community college districts and assess the impact of a variety of variables including size of student enrollment, physical plant age, acreage, gross square footage, and general obligation facility bonds on district…

Past reports by the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy (CEEP) have sought to examine various aspects of Indiana public school funding such as the mechanisms for funding, school revenues and expenditures, as well as numerous other reports whose subjects have implications on school and program funding. This report focuses on another…

The federal government has traditionally given local school districts an indirect subsidy by allowing them to issue tax-exempt bonds. Because the bondholders pay no tax on the interest income, they are willing to take a bond bearing interest at, say, 4.5% rather than 6%. Such lower interest is great for the school district because it saves the…

The passage of a school bond can determine the direction of a district for many years to come (Faltys, 2006). Upkeep of older facilities and the building of new facilities can have an impact on instruction, teacher job satisfaction, student achievement, and perceptions toward the district (Moore, 2003). Despite the fact there is often state money…

Using Levin and McEwan's (2001) "ingredients method," this study identified the major activities and associated costs of school levy campaigns in five districts. The ingredients were divided into one of five cost categories--human resources, facilities, fees, marketing, and supplies. As to overall costs of the campaigns, estimates ranged…

Qualified school construction bonds (QSCBs) are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These bonds allow school districts to finance capital projects at no or very low interest rates. In a nutshell, bondholders accept a lower interest rate because the corresponding federal tax credit they receive subsidizes that lower interest…

This dissertation presents a historical case study of the Egg Harbor Township School District bond referendum that passed with an exceptionally high 92 percent of votes in January 2005. The methodology used in this study resulted in both an examination of the components of the New Jersey Public School District bond referendum process as well as an…

Construction bonding authority--a technical, and often obscure, source of capital funding for school districts--has emerged as a hot ticket for those looking to finance school facilities work under the federal government's economic-stimulus program. School districts left out of the loop for direct funding are lining up for some of at least $24…

Dozens of colleges and universities, including some of the country's wealthiest institutions, are facing a sharp rise in interest payments on a whopping mound of debt. About a third of the nearly 300 private institutions rated by Moody's Investors Service are financing more than half their debt with variable-rate bonds, some of whose rates have…

This paper analyzes the impact of voter-approved school bond issues on school district balance sheets, local housing prices, and student achievement. We draw on the unique characteristics of California's system of school finance to obtain clean identification of bonds' causal effects, comparing districts in which school bond referenda passed or…