To jump-start educational recovery after the disruptions from COVID-19, the federal and state governments sent billions in one-time stimulus funds to school districts. California allocated much of its stimulus funding to districts based on their shares of low-income students--a proxy for student need and the main way California directs money…

Despite their common historical roots, two higher education systems in Latin America differ dramatically in their financing mechanisms. In Argentina, the national government completely subsidizes undergraduate programs in public institutions, while Chile relies mostly on tuition fees charged to individuals attending public institutions. Through…

This report was commissioned of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) by the Maine Legislature's Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs in the spring of 2021. At that time, there were widespread anecdotal reports that students' mental health was suffering after a year of disrupted schooling from the global coronavirus…

Leaders of the scientific community have declared that American science is in a crisis due to inadequate federal funding. They misconstrue the problem; its roots lie instead in the institutional interactions between federal funding agencies and higher education. After World War II, science policy elites advocated for a system of funding that…

Nearly every economic indicator, from the stock market to unemployment and beyond, suggests that a global financial crisis is imminent. While an economic downturn may affect every parent, family, and taxpayer, education special-interest groups are demanding that Washington bail them out now, regardless of future tax or spending implications. These…

Pell eligibility for incarcerated people is a great rehabilitative opportunity, but several challenges remain. This article recaps five of the issues identified by the original research articles in this special issue. It also considers how solutions proposed in these studies may be beneficial across a variety of these issues and gathers…

This report presents information describing local educational agencies' (LEA) uses of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds for technology purposes. It describes the: (1) types of educational technology that LEAs purchased with their ESSER funds; (2) challenges that LEAs experienced when using ESSER funds for educational…

Advocates of tuition-free four-year public college make the argument for it too easy by asserting that it would be paid for out of taxes on the wealthy. Other uses of the revenues are possible. In this paper, Harry Brighouse and Kailey Mullane establish two criteria for comparing different uses of the revenues: the first criterion is, will the…

The American Enterprise Institute, EducationCounsel, and The Century Foundation undertook a joint process to examine--across ideological lines--the nature of the existing system that finances graduate education, including its benefits and downsides, and to design a framework that should guide the improvement of federal policy regarding graduate…

The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) was faced with ensuring its local education agencies (LEAs)--comprising 89 school districts and 100 charter schools--had sufficient support to effectively use American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to meet students' most pressing needs. NMPED turned to the Region 13 Comprehensive Center (R13CC) in 2021…

The fiscal crisis facing the economy has led to withdrawal of the state from major sectors of the economy including education. With the advent of the liberalized economic policy the private sector has been playing a pivotal role in the economic development. Higher education ceases to be the 'merit good' and the universities are encouraged to…

The recent passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) is infusing America's K12 public schools with unprecedented, desperately needed relief funds to aid in the academic recovery of students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The $122 billion allocated to K-12 public schools represents over seven times current annual Title I funding. As a…

Purpose: New policy proposals to increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)--including recent efforts by the Biden-Harris administration to "fully fund" IDEA--bring a new sense of urgency to understanding how federal special education dollars are distributed among states. In this study, we evaluate…

This fact sheet reports on education funding in British Columbia (BC). Funding for public education significantly increased in 2017-18 and is projected to continue to increase in line with increasing student enrollment. However, government spending on K-12 education as a proportion of total public spending continues to decline. An increase in…

Although colleges receive funds from student loans, they have largely escaped accountability for their role when students take on unaffordable student loan debt. One partial exception was a set of regulations called "Gainful Employment" that sought to hold some higher education programs accountable for excessive student loan debt. If a…