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…

This study investigates parameters affecting the likelihood of passing school facility construction bonds by local district election. Using statewide data from Michigan, this study analyzes school bond data for urban (n = 30), suburban (n = 164), small town (n = 70), and rural (n = 241) school districts that held capital improvement bond elections…

States and localities issue debt to finance projects undertaken by government and, in some cases, by the private sector (bonds issued by states and localities to finance either government operations or certain private-sector activities are known as municipal bonds). The federal government subsidizes the issuance of municipal bonds by offering tax…

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Statewide Survey provides policymakers, the media, and the public with objective, advocacy-free information on the perceptions, opinions, and public policy preferences of California residents. Inaugurated in April 1998, this is the 125th PPIC Statewide Survey in a series that has generated a…

This report provides standard facts and figures about the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) finances, student populations, achievements, and more. HISD has humanized that data, as well, with vignettes and profiles that typify the remarkable programs and individuals in the district. One of the three drivers to achieve the vision of…

In a world of high tech and low touch, it is easy for public relations programs to stray from tried-and-true interpersonal strategies long associated with solid communication planning. New technologies allow communications professionals to quickly send e-mails and telephone calls to selected groups. Social media sites provide users immediate…

This book seeks to explore thematic and pragmatic applications of financing the community college to help facilitate educational reform, to assist efforts related to internationalization, and to create systemic support systems to maintain the mission. It includes chapters on a wide variety of finance related topics, and specific case studies of…

This study was designed to explore fiscal interrelationships that underlay capital outlay funding, including the differences between rural and non-rural school districts. The study additionally focused on the relationships between various capital outlay funding components (capital outlay expenditures per pupil, net assessed valuation per pupil,…

The downward enrollment trend shown in this year's "AS&U" 100--a compilation of the nation's 100 largest school districts--is unmistakable. Added together, the 100 largest districts had 10,708,137 students in 2006-2007, compared with 10,763,959 in 2005-2006. Even districts that showed steady growth throughout the 1990s and the early…

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Recovery Act or ARRA) into law on February 17, 2009. This federal stimulus package provided an unprecedented infusion of new education aid for the nation's schools--more than $100 billion. To determine how the unprecedented federal infusion of education funding was…

Methodology: There is no national source of data or information on the federal role in funding and oversight for public PK-12 school facilities. To address this shortcoming, 21st Century School Fund has prepared this study with the support of the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. In collecting data and information for this report,…

Listing by States of recent bond issues sold and their buyers and interest rates. (RA)

Often superintendents and boards of education employ an expert-based, school-centered, "decide and defend" decision making approach when dealing with critical school district issues. In the case presented here, involving what to do with an historic school building, it is an approach that did not yield the result the superintendent or board of…

Despite a number of savvy strategies, it was a tough year at the polls for libraries. Both building and operating referenda had the lowest passage rates this decade, with only 52% of capital referenda and 57% of operating referenda finding success. In fact, in the 18 years since Library Journal has been tracking these votes, 2005 had the lowest…