This article provides an overview of non-religion-based state constitutional challenges to educational voucher and tax credit/scholarship programs. The first section discusses litigation examining whether education voucher programs violate constitutional provisions requiring the legislature to provide an efficient system of public schools. The…

There is a substantial literature that assesses the effects of tax-exporting capacities on the tax structures and aggregate spending levels that state governments choose to implement, but no work exists that isolates the effects of state tax exporting on higher education spending. Using state-level data for 1989, 1995, 2002, and 2007, we estimate…

In a move intended to cut costs to the state, the government of Rivers State has announced that it is revoking international scholarships for its young people studying overseas (except for final year students). Whether or not there are corresponding courses available for them back in Nigeria, some 600 students are effectively being recalled and…

As 2015 came to an end, education funders in Texas were reflecting not only on the results of their grantmaking over the past year but also on what the state legislature had (and had not) accomplished during its most recent session. Thirty-four Texas funders felt a particular sense of satisfaction because they had helped shape some of the new…

This concurrent mixed methods study revealed the impacts of the Title IV, Federal Regulation, State Authorization (SA), on a statewide community college system, with regard to staffing, establishment of local processes, obtainment of authorizations, fiscal resources, and student enrollment. The study takes place within the California community…

The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The "OECD Reviews of School Resources" explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as…

The challenge of providing more and better education with tightening public budgets has made governments increasingly interested in the efficient allocation of education resources. Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that, among countries with a comparatively high gross domestic product (GDP) per…

This report uses expenditure data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) "National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS)" for fiscal years 1991 to 2011 and instructional staff data from the CCD "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education" for school years 1990-91 to 2010-11. The CCD annually collects fiscal…

As explored in the first report in this series, the past decade has been a period of tremendous growth for UMass. This growth has taken many forms, including expansion of the school's capital facilities, increased student enrollment, and a growing national profile and public mission. These developments have resulted in innumerable successes for…

Since Minnesota passed the first charter school law in 1991, charter schools have become one of the most prominent school reforms in the U.S. While charter schools educate a small portion of public school enrollments, their existence has prompted various responses from traditional public school (TPS) districts. This paper explores education…

Background: Many disciplines use outdoor fieldwork (OFW) as an experiential learning method in higher education. Although there has been an increase in research into the pedagogical approaches of OFW, the use of OFW is contested. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to synthesize the OFW literature across a range of disciplines to identify common…

Many argue that the California Master Plan for Higher Education is no longer effective in meeting the needs of students. This policy analysis assesses the impact of California higher education policy on the state's community colleges that are considered minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Using longitudinal data to determine how the metrics have…

According to globalisation theories, the importance of international organisations such as UNESCO and EU regarding processes of policy-making is increasing and it is no longer the nation state alone that is regulating policy. Focusing on equity and social justice as central topics of the global discourse, the article raises the question of how…

This article examines the growth of private higher education (PHE) in two North African nations: Morocco and Tunisia. It draws on interviews with policy-makers and university officials to understand similarities and differences in the nations' experiences with PHE. It argues that both nations' official embrace of privatization was in part because…

Tarrant and Dallas counties are side-by-side blocks comprising 1,772 square miles. They are home to the region's big economic centers, Fort Worth and Dallas, respectively. If you look only at the Texas Federal Reserve Banks' data on regional economic growth, the picture here is rosy. But if you look below the surface, the story is different. It…