Purpose: This article maps the rise of venture philanthropy in public education in Australia, exploring how policy networks mobilize high-level systemic reform and governance technologies. This is "philanthrocapitalism," a fundamental shift for policy mobility and modes of redistribution. Design/Approach/Methods: Drawing upon network…

As discussed in "Splitting the Bill: How Are State Education Funding Formulas Structured?," state school funding formulas generally fit one of three structures -- student-based, resource-based, or program-based. The cornerstone of a student-based funding formula is the per-student base amount (also appropriately called the…

In 2020, McMaster University's students-as-partners (SaP) program shifted operations to a grant-funded model. To understand what, if any, influence this programmatic change had on student, staff, and faculty partners, we sought to critically evaluate this new model. Toward this aim, we conducted an institutional ethnography and survey of student,…

The purpose of this historical study was to investigate how individuals articulated the call for the South Texas/Border Initiative, a legislative mandate that funneled unprecedented amounts of funding to underserved universities along the Texas-Mexico border region between 1987 and 2003. Utilizing archival sources, we conducted an analysis of the…

Do perceptions about how the government spends tax dollars affect the willingness to pay taxes? We designed a field experiment to test this hypothesis in a natural, high-stakes context and via revealed preferences. We measure perceptions about the share of property tax revenues that fund public schools and the share of property taxes that are…

Understanding how school districts allocate resources across students and schools is important for designing efficacious and equitable school finance policies. Newly released school-level spending data allow for new insights about the level of spending a student experiences at her school and how well spending corresponds with student…

When it comes to providing children with a high-quality education, money matters. Research shows that sustained and significant increases in school funding can have a lasting positive impact on student achievement and other outcomes -- especially for students from low-income backgrounds. Yet, the U.S. education system is plagued with persistent…

Recent reporting and research have claimed that some regional public universities are vulnerable, fragile, and endangered. However, much of what we know about the financial conditions of RPUs is limited to cases of financial crisis that capture national attention yet fail to fully represent the sector. The purpose of this chapter is to more deeply…

Increasingly governments and donors seek to invest in programs and policies that are cost-effective rather than those that just maximize impact. Cost-effectiveness analysis aims to estimate how much an intervention costs per outcome delivered and benchmark this against similar metrics estimated for alternative interventions targeting the same…

This Policy Snapshot provides examples of legislation in 13 states that have proposed or enacted legislation addressing the following principles of K-12 funding models: attendance and enrollment, revenue, and equity-based initiatives. All 50 states allocate K-12 funding in different ways. Refer to this two-page reference guide, which defines and…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the funding equitably across community college districts in Michigan. Pursuant to this investigation, the disproportionate effect that community college funding has on underserved populations was examined. This research utilized a quantitative approach, including descriptive statistics,…

Public community colleges have struggled with reduced funding allocations, unstable enrollments, low completion rates, and growing racial equity gaps while facing increased accountability for outcomes. As a result, public community colleges are trying to determine how to efficiently use limited funds to effectively meet equitable student outcomes.…

This essay, shortlisted for the AHUA Dr Jonathan Nicholls Memorial Essay Prize, addresses recent policy attention on student maintenance funding in the United Kingdom. It proposes the establishment of a graduate-funded endowment in lieu of other measures such as increased parental contributions or the imposition of a graduate tax. After discussing…

The U.S. Department of Education has projected enrollment declines over the next decade, leading to budget cuts for school districts, which will be particularly impactful in urban and rural areas serving vulnerable students. As federal COVID-19 funds expire, districts will face challenges in cutting costs, potentially leading to layoffs or school…

In this paper, I argue that power promised to England's teachers by the 2010 'Importance of Teaching' white paper has rather played out as a reformulation of methods of policymaking to more indirect modes of government control. I trace the growth of government control in English schools, promised front-line power in 2010 and a rise in…