A small rural Missouri school district successfully campaigned for an 81-cent tax increase: 38 cents for a levy to operate schools, and a 43-cent bond issue that would allocate money to build new facilities. Passage of the referendum required at least a year of hard work and planning, positive advertisements, and a lot of community involvement.…

Issuing municipal bonds requires many decisions and involves a number of individuals. Traces basic and essential steps to ensure a successful endeavor. (MLF)

Despite the recent upheaval in public finance, the typical school district still approaches, organizes, and perceives a school finance referendum no differently than 40 years ago. Political strategy remains a rather shunned, undeveloped resource at a time when election success is most needed and when school administrators cannot take public…

One alternative to the insurance crisis faced by school districts is self-insurance, either through pooling or capital market funding. After a brief discussion of the insurance issue, research and literature dealing specifically with self-insurance through pooling and capital market funding are described. Finally, an assesment is made of the…

A review is presented of the history and evolution of general obligation school bonds and capital outlay financing for public education. Following a discussion of past legislation of several states concerned with school borrowing, the evolution of school bonding is explained in terms of increased school financing from 1900 through 1958.…

Describes local, state, and federal school infrastructure funding options. Local funding options include bond issues, special local-option sales taxes, and voter-approved mills and sinking funds. Describes use of federal Qualified Zone Academy Bonds. (PKP)

Colorado's College Opportunity Fund is an educational program that affords public universities greater administrative freedom while diminishing financial support from the state. Under the new system, students receive stipends from government while universities are allowed greater freedom setting tuition and issuing bonds. This article discusses…

This research brief is the fourth of a series of four that list and index items by subject and State. Over 4,000 legislative items are listed. No legislation that was vetoed or that failed, nor any carryover legislation, is listed in this current series. (Author/JF)

This document contains specific recommendations for conducting bond campaigns. It outlines the three major considerations of any bond campaign: (1) committee organization and appointment; (2) time lines; and (3) getting out the vote. The publication focuses on the need for total community involvement and outlines some of the components for…

School administrators in South Dakota and throughout the United States, in order to fund educational facility replacement and renovation projects, initiate school bond elections that they often have difficulty planning to successful conclusions. This study uses an exploratory data analysis to determine the factors within a community and within the…

This article examines support for school bonds among minority group members in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which includes the city of Charlotte. A survey was conducted shortly after a bitter court case and shortly before a proposed bond referendum. Support for bonds in the minority community was fairly moderate. Support was not related to…

Describes how school districts may significantly reduce the interest paid on school building bonds in states where the law permits advance refunding of school bond issues in response to declining interest rates. Presents two examples of how Indiana school districts used advance refunding to reduce the cost of debt service. (JG)

Chapter 6

Factors that produced defeat of bond issues and the actions taken by administrators of four California junior college districts to offset those factors are presented in this paper. Relevant findings from previous studies on school bond elections are summarized; the legal and fiscal context in which new California junior college districts operate…