The Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Making Connections" initiative provides support to communities across the country to help improve outcomes for children and families in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The sites, together with local partners, are engaged in a range of strategies and activities, reflecting local conditions and priorities, to ensure…

The authors find that college students are borrowing more and taking on riskier forms of debt than ever before. If tuition increases continue to grow faster than inflation and family income and grant aid fails to keep pace, the authors project that more students will be left with few choices beyond student loans--and, increasingly, private loans.…

Public cuts in financial support have hurt public colleges and students. The author argues that the fault lies in part with the colleges themselves. Many public-university administrators are incapable of convincing political and business leaders of the need for financial support because they are no longer fully convinced themselves. They have…

This paper presents several facts about the early care and education in Minnesota. These facts are organized according to the following topics: (1) Children age 5 and younger in Minnesota; (2) Number of early care and education programs and providers; (3) Children ages 0-2 and 3-5 enrolled in quality early childhood programs; (4) Number of…

During the past 20 years, afterschool programs have become an increasingly vital part of most American communities. Today, some 6.5 million children across the nation participate in these programs. Another 15 million children would participate if a program were available to them, according to their parents. These numbers tell at least two…

Since 2007, "Forward Thinking" has provided the roadmap for the department's work. These goals have served the department well in aligning and focusing the work at hand. The goals are: (1) Provide guidance and support to meet school and district needs; (2) Enhance professional development involving best practices; (3) Develop tools to…

Florida benefits from a unique private-public partnership that encourages the 11 state universities to establish endowments for academic initiatives. The basic premise is to provide donors with an incentive in the form of matching state grants, thereby increasing the value of the donation. Since 1979, the state universities have used the matching…

In fall 2007, and in alignment with the strategic plan of the Colorado State Board of Education, the Colorado Department of Education released "Forward Thinking," a plan which publicly announced seven goals that, when attained, would culminate in a statewide system of accountability and support addressing the needs of all districts. Some…

Rural communities have fewer financial resources, making the community colleges located in these regions central to economic development. This chapter reviews the importance of recognizing the rural differential via policy changes and offers strategies to close the resource gap between rural and nonrural community colleges.

Leaders of programs serving rural America need to act strategically to ensure the long-term success of their initiatives. This strategy brief describes the funding landscape of rural programs and highlights the unique challenges confronting rural program leaders. It describes the different public and private resources that can support…

Analyzes New York University's Fiscal Crisis and proposes remedies. (JF)

This statewide study of Illinois foundations indicates that by researching where foundation grants have gone in the past, a pattern of giving can be deduced. (Editor)

Describes how, with budgets tightening, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University at College Station are among the elite public institutions wondering if they should trade state money for greater autonomy. (EV)

Federal funding for colleges should be done in a manner which promotes choice on the part of the student, social justice for all Americans and autonomy for institutions. Most support should come from states and private sources while federal money is but a supplement. (Author/AF)

The major sources of income for public colleges and universities in the US are state governments, the federal government, auxiliary enterprises (housing, bookstores, etc.), tuition, and student fees. Although the amount of state tax support is rising in dollars, it is declining as a percentage of total income for many public institutions. Because…