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Author: Rekha Balu Publisher: Stanford University ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 206
Book Description
Much of the school finance literature has focused on the distribution or equality of resources across school districts. Such literature compares levels of spending between school districts or states. But it has ignored the variability and unpredictability of those revenues within school districts over time. Meanwhile, public finance literature has focused on states or counties, and disregarded school districts as a unit of analysis for responses to fiscal stress. This dissertation addresses these gaps. First, drawing from techniques both within and outside of public finance, I contribute a new measure of fiscal stress based on unpredictability of state revenues. Second, I explicitly assess policy and tax mechanisms that may aggravate revenue instability for school districts and to what extent instability changes over time. Finally, I examine school districts response to chronic unpredictability in state revenues. Despite states' increasing reliance on more volatile sales and income taxes to fund public education, I find that unpredictability in state revenues to districts has declined by one-fourth of a standard deviation over time. In states that shifted to the more volatile sales and income tax base while also centralizing school finance as part of efforts to equalize school funding, unpredictability in state revenues to districts declined by a full standard deviation. In effect, centralization and more equal distribution of funding appears to trump the effects of a volatile tax base, as states have a greater ability to buffer against shocks than local education agencies do. Yet districts still face uncertain and unstable revenues from the states, aggravated by economic downturns. With primary and secondary data, I study the case of California where districts face uncertain cuts to their allocations during the year and between years. I use three key fiscal health measures: average revenue instability over time, whether revenues declined in the prior period, and the experience of the budget officer. I find that highly unstable districts are more likely to raise local revenues, but that cost-cutting is more prevalent that revenue-raising. Experienced budget officers use a greater variety of policy instruments to cope with instability, pointing to the under-explored role of management in the fiscal health of a district. These findings as a whole suggest that revenue instability merits further attention in the school finance literature in particular and public management in general. Unpredictability in states revenues is a phenomenon that concerns school districts, one that changes over time, but one to which they may adapt.
Author: Rekha Balu Publisher: Stanford University ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 206
Book Description
Much of the school finance literature has focused on the distribution or equality of resources across school districts. Such literature compares levels of spending between school districts or states. But it has ignored the variability and unpredictability of those revenues within school districts over time. Meanwhile, public finance literature has focused on states or counties, and disregarded school districts as a unit of analysis for responses to fiscal stress. This dissertation addresses these gaps. First, drawing from techniques both within and outside of public finance, I contribute a new measure of fiscal stress based on unpredictability of state revenues. Second, I explicitly assess policy and tax mechanisms that may aggravate revenue instability for school districts and to what extent instability changes over time. Finally, I examine school districts response to chronic unpredictability in state revenues. Despite states' increasing reliance on more volatile sales and income taxes to fund public education, I find that unpredictability in state revenues to districts has declined by one-fourth of a standard deviation over time. In states that shifted to the more volatile sales and income tax base while also centralizing school finance as part of efforts to equalize school funding, unpredictability in state revenues to districts declined by a full standard deviation. In effect, centralization and more equal distribution of funding appears to trump the effects of a volatile tax base, as states have a greater ability to buffer against shocks than local education agencies do. Yet districts still face uncertain and unstable revenues from the states, aggravated by economic downturns. With primary and secondary data, I study the case of California where districts face uncertain cuts to their allocations during the year and between years. I use three key fiscal health measures: average revenue instability over time, whether revenues declined in the prior period, and the experience of the budget officer. I find that highly unstable districts are more likely to raise local revenues, but that cost-cutting is more prevalent that revenue-raising. Experienced budget officers use a greater variety of policy instruments to cope with instability, pointing to the under-explored role of management in the fiscal health of a district. These findings as a whole suggest that revenue instability merits further attention in the school finance literature in particular and public management in general. Unpredictability in states revenues is a phenomenon that concerns school districts, one that changes over time, but one to which they may adapt.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309173957 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 328
Book Description
Spending on K-12 education across the United States and across local school districts has long been characterized by great disparitiesâ€"disparities that reflect differences in property wealth and tax rates. For more than a quarter-century, reformers have attempted to reduce these differences through court challenges and legislative action. As part of a broad study of education finance, the committee commissioned eight papers examining the history and consequences of school finance reform undertaken in the name of equity and adequacy. This thought-provoking, timely collection of papers explores such topics as: What do the terms "equity" and "adequacy" in school finance really mean? How are these terms relevant to the politics and litigation of school finance reform? What is the impact of court-ordered school finance reform on spending disparities? How do school districts use money from finance reform? What policy options are available to states facing new challenges from court decisions mandating adequacy in school finance? When measuring adequacy, how do you consider differences in student needs and regional costs?
Author: Jonathan Kozol Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0770436668 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 338
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An impassioned book, laced with anger and indignation, about how our public education system scorns so many of our children.”—The New York Times Book Review In 1988, Jonathan Kozol set off to spend time with children in the American public education system. For two years, he visited schools in neighborhoods across the country, from Illinois to Washington, D.C., and from New York to San Antonio. He spoke with teachers, principals, superintendents, and, most important, children. What he found was devastating. Not only were schools for rich and poor blatantly unequal, the gulf between the two extremes was widening—and it has widened since. The urban schools he visited were overcrowded and understaffed, and lacked the basic elements of learning—including books and, all too often, classrooms for the students. In Savage Inequalities, Kozol delivers a searing examination of the extremes of wealth and poverty and calls into question the reality of equal opportunity in our nation’s schools. Praise for Savage Inequalities “I was unprepared for the horror and shame I felt. . . . Savage Inequalities is a savage indictment. . . . Everyone should read this important book.”—Robert Wilson, USA Today “Kozol has written a book that must be read by anyone interested in education.”—Elizabeth Duff, Philadelphia Inquirer “The forces of equity have now been joined by a powerful voice. . . . Kozol has written a searing exposé of the extremes of wealth and poverty in America’s school system and the blighting effect on poor children, especially those in cities.”—Emily Mitchell, Time “Easily the most passionate, and certain to be the most passionately debated, book about American education in several years . . . A classic American muckraker with an eloquent prose style, Kozol offers . . . an old-fashioned brand of moral outrage that will affect every reader whose heart has not yet turned to stone.”—Entertainment Weekly
Author: Daphne A. Kenyon Publisher: Lincoln Inst of Land Policy ISBN: 9781558441682 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 63
Book Description
States experiencing taxpayer revolts among homeowners are tempted to reduce reliance on the property tax to fund schools. But a more targeted approach can provide property tax relief and improve state funding for public education. This policy focus report includes a comprehensive review of recent research on both property tax and school funding, and summarizes case studies of seven states-- California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas. The majority of these states are heavily reliant on property tax revenues to fund schools. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the report recommends addressing property taxes and school funding separately.
Author: Jennifer A. Delaney Publisher: American Educational Research Association ISBN: 196034899X Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 381
Book Description
The severity of cuts and the unpredictability in state funding for higher education have garnered headlines across the nation since the turn of the present century. In this context, the authors in this new groundbreaking volume argue that too little attention is paid to the consequences of volatility in funding, as most discussions focus on levels of funding. Their research addresses an important blind spot in the academic literature since predictability matters—to institutions, students, families, and states. In addition, the risks of operating in an uncertain financial environment have led to behaviors that are not always in the best interests of states, institutions, faculty, students, or the public good.
Author: Eric A. Hanushek Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 1400830257 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 432
Book Description
Improving public schools through performance-based funding Spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public-school funding, the United States now spends more per student on K-12 education than almost any other country. Yet American students still achieve less than their foreign counterparts, their performance has been flat for decades, millions of them are failing, and poor and minority students remain far behind their more advantaged peers. In this book, Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth trace the history of reform efforts and conclude that the principal focus of both courts and legislatures on ever-increasing funding has done little to improve student achievement. Instead, Hanushek and Lindseth propose a new approach: a performance-based system that directly links funding to success in raising student achievement. This system would empower and motivate educators to make better, more cost-effective decisions about how to run their schools, ultimately leading to improved student performance. Hanushek and Lindseth have been important participants in the school funding debate for three decades. Here, they draw on their experience, as well as the best available research and data, to show why improving schools will require overhauling the way financing, incentives, and accountability work in public education.
Author: Caroline M. Hoxby Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226355349 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 367
Book Description
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared school voucher programs constitutional, the many unanswered questions concerning the potential effects of school choice will become especially pressing. Contributors to this volume draw on state-of-the-art economic methods to answer some of these questions, investigating the ways in which school choice affects a wide range of issues. Combining the results of empirical research with analyses of the basic economic forces underlying local education markets, The Economics of School Choice presents evidence concerning the impact of school choice on student achievement, school productivity, teachers, and special education. It also tackles difficult questions such as whether school choice affects where people decide to live and how choice can be integrated into a system of school financing that gives children from different backgrounds equal access to resources. Contributors discuss the latest findings on Florida's school choice program as well as voucher programs and charter schools in several other states. The resulting volume not only reveals the promise of school choice, but examines its pitfalls as well, showing how programs can be designed that exploit the idea's potential but avoid its worst effects. With school choice programs gradually becoming both more possible and more popular, this book stands out as an essential exploration of the effects such programs will have, and a necessary resource for anyone interested in the idea of school choice.
Author: Rekha Balu
Author: Rekha Balu
Author: Marsha Gronseth
Author: National Research Council
Author: Jonathan Kozol
Author: Daphne A. Kenyon
Author: Jennifer A. Delaney
Author: Thomas Kersten
Author: Eric A. Hanushek
Author: Caroline M. Hoxby
Author: