Examines how well, after 12 years and 3 billion dollars, North Carolina's counties and their school systems have succeeded in meeting their previously stated needs for school construction. Focuses on the role of state money in helping counties and on the state's efforts to assist the poorest counties in meeting their needs. (Contains 15 figures.)…

The notion of optimal population is recast as a problem of optimal scale (population times per capita resource use). Considers bioeconomic limits to scale. Discusses the choice between many people at low resource use per capita versus fewer people at higher resource per capita and suggests a policy that serves both efficiency and sufficiency.…

A reanalysis of data from a national telephone poll (n1181) conducted in 1991 determined that if local libraries faced a fiscal crisis, 47% favored raising taxes, 44% preferred instituting user fees, and 9% advocated reducing services. Frequent library use, urban residence, higher level of education, and greater income were associated with a…

A study of the financing of 96 small rural K-8 and K-12 Missouri school districts found that it was more difficult to support small rural high schools than small rural elementary schools. Small K-12 districts could convert to K-8 districts and contract with adjoining districts to instruct their high school students. (TD)

This paper examines the impact of welfare reforms on several measures of child maltreatment. The authors use state-level data from 1990 to 1998 to examine whether recent welfare reforms have increased or reduced the incidence of reported and substantiated cases of maltreatment, the incidence of specific types of substantiated…

As a large body of high-quality research has emerged in the past few years showing that school choice benefits the students who use it, much of the debate has shifted to the "public" or "social" effects of school choice. This study examines how school choice in Missouri would raise high school graduation rates, and measures the…

This study documents the public costs of high school dropouts in Indiana, and examines how school choice would provide large public benefits by increasing the graduation rate in Indiana public schools. It calculates the annual cost of high school dropouts in Indiana due to lower state income tax payments, increased reliance on Medicaid, and…

This is the 8th annual report on conditions affecting the Racine Unified School District RUSD). Each study has confirmed that the Racine Unified School District (RUSD) faces greater challenges than its peers. Although these challenges have led Racine to spend slightly above the average amount per pupil, district performance tends to be below…

This study examined attitudes of people about benefits of the economic impacts of two local colleges (Palmer College of Chiropractic and Scott Community College) in the metropolitan Quad Cities area of Rock Island County (Illinois) and Scott County (Iowa). The study compared impacts considered important by the community with those estimated by the…

This report examines child care from a business perspective and proposes methods to help finance affordable, accessible, and high-quality child care in Colorado. The Commission's procedures are described, and data summaries are included. The following 12 recommendations are made: (1) establish model planning and zoning programs to increase and…

Based on data submitted by Michigan's 28 community colleges for 1995-96, this report describes instruction, personnel, revenues, and expenditures at the state's colleges and reviews the state funding formula. Section 1 provides historical data from 1985 to 1996 on state appropriations, property tax revenue, tuition and fee revenues, state…

In the 70s and 80s, Ohio relaxed its balanced-budget laws to give school districts more options for borrowing over the end of the fiscal year. Two provisions that permit districts to borrow against next year's revenues in order to balance the current year's budget include the Emergency School Advancement program and the Spending Reserve. This…

This book addresses the educational challenges of the 20th century, such as the right to search students' lockers for guns and drugs, by examining the Milwaukee, Wisconsin school system as an example of how these challenges have affected the politics of education, the curriculum, the work of teachers and principals, and the everyday lives of…

This report presents data on enrollments, levies, budgets, costs per pupil, and teacher salaries in 82 of Montana's 98 small rural (Class "C") school districts for fiscal year 1993-94. The average enrollment was 143 students in elementary schools and 68 students in high schools. Costs per pupil to the general fund budget without special…

This report examines the wealth of Pennsylvania school districts, the effort districts exert to support education, school expenditures, and the effects of district wealth on students. Important findings related to disparities in wealth and spending on education include: (1) the polarization of wealth distribution during the 1980s made over 90% of…