Recent reports point to soaring student loan debt and high rates of default as impediments to financial security for millions of Americans. A number of colleges and universities have addressed the issue with initiatives ranging from financial fixes to bold new models of higher education. The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS)…

The effects of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 continue to challenge school business officials (SBOs) and other education leaders as they strive to prepare students for the global workforce. Economists have borrowed a word from chemistry to describe this state of affairs: hysteresis--the lingering effects of the past on the present. Today's SBOs…

For decades educational researchers have attempted to find links between school funding and student achievement. These attempts have generated many contradictory viewpoints and have produced many unanswered questions. Ever increasing accountability on states, districts and schools combined with severe financial strain has made measuring school…

This is the report of a policy research study that examined the potential outcomes of instituting a standardized "Joint Reserve Officer Training Corps" during the first two years of college. Focus groups at three ROTC universities and interviews with subject matter experts were conducted to explore the meaning and purpose of jointness…

Higher education is in the midst of a deep financial crisis, and the failure of governing boards to focus on academic programs is arguably the single greatest cause of overspending. This brochure shows trustees both why and how to prioritize academic programs. All too often, attempts to reduce expenses have concentrated on the administrative side…

The portfolio strategy is a performance management model for districts that aims to create dramatic student achievement gains at scale. It centers on creating more high-quality schools regardless of provider, giving schools autonomy over staff and funding, and holding all schools accountable for performance. This one-pager outlines the seven key…

"Fundraising Strategies for Community Colleges" is a hands-on, step-by-step guide to building a million-dollar-a-year development office. Community colleges educate nearly half the undergraduates in America yet receive as little as two percent of all gifts to higher education. Private philanthropy is now essential to the mission of community…

Diminishing state support for higher education threatens human capital development. This quantitative study undertook to determine the state factors that influence higher education funding and to what degree they do so, what level of funding is required to satisfy higher education expenditure need, and what can help to ensure that those funding…

In contrast with recent decades of economic growth and stability, today's education funding landscape appears to be entrenched in a pattern of diminishing financial resources that may persist for a number of years. This is occurring also amid unprecedented efforts by lawmakers and public officials to intervene in school reform work. School…

An economy struggling to rise out of recession presents a difficult time for institutions of higher education as state and federal support for higher education is not keeping pace with costs (Newman, Couturier, & Scurry, 2004; Wellman, Desrochers, & Lenihan, 2009). It is essential for colleges and universities to raise funds from external…

This study investigated various state policies to determine their impact on the state share of instruction (SSI) funding to community colleges in the state of Ohio. To complete the policy analysis, the researcher utilized three policy analysis tools, defined by Gill and Saunders (2010) as iterative processes, intuition and judgment, and advice and…

llinois K-12 public education administrators' attitudes about, participation in and support of the fine arts were investigated to determine what impact those experiences might have on the inclusion of fine arts in the schools they lead. A secondary consideration was if attitudes toward the fine arts played a role in the inclusion of the fine arts…

Colleges and universities discount tuition by providing institutional aid to reduce the actual amount paid by a student. Discount rates are substantial and continue to increase, particularly at private institutions. Funded institutional discounts are linked to gifts or endowment income restricted to financial aid. Unfunded institutional discounts…

This November, California voters must decide two policy questions of great concern to public-sector unions. One is a tax hike to stave off further cuts to state spending (there are two versions on the ballot with a chance of passing). The other is a "paycheck protection" measure that would ban the practice of unions' deducting money from…

When the Great Recession took its toll on state budgets, public universities felt the pain. Many public universities attempted to offset reductions in state funds by raising tuition, shifting admission spots to more out-of-state students, and, in some cases, increasing enrollment. For a given budget gap, these three strategies should be weighted…