Every year, the state of Texas and local school districts pay more and more for public education. Together, they’ll spend a projected $46 billion on Texas schools in 2017. That money comes from two main places: the state government and local property taxes. But that burden isn’t shared equally.
Olentangy is supposed to get more. A lot more — about $80 million over the next two years, based on the state funding formula. But the district, like 133 others around the state, is subjected to an arbitrary funding cap that restricts its increase, regardless of enrollment growth.
More school districts are turning to deficit spending and long-term borrowing to meet operational costs, according to a new Illinois State Board of Education report.
State policy plays a critical role in determining whether and how well local education improvement strategies can be implemented. As states rework their education policies under ESSA, state and local leaders need a way to assess their current policy environment and identify the changes needed to encourage local innovation and problem-solving. Read the overview, open up the self-assessment tool, then dig into the state policy reviews and recommendations in four key areas: systems, schools, famil
The awards are the first since the Legislature agreed last year to set aside $100 million to help privately run charter schools borrow money at lower interest rates. The state is effectively guaranteeing that lenders will not miss payments.
Senate Bill 1480, which would allocate an additional $3 billion of the Permanent School Fund to back charter school bonds, passed the Senate Monday, with four Republicans voting against the measure. The $30 billion Permanent School Fund, the largest education endowment in the country, guarantees bonds from traditional school districts and charter schools, allowing them to borrow money for construction at lower interest rates.
States and school districts are girding for a little-known but tricky piece of the Every Student Succeeds Act: the requirement that states report per-pupil spending for all their schools, a level of detail unknown even to many district superintendents. Click here for a map on how per-pupil spending compares across U.S. school districts.
U.S. schools could save at least $3 billion a year on educational technology by sharing information about how much they pay for hardware and software, according to estimates in a new study by the nonprofit Technology for Education Consortium. Discrepancies between the highest and lowest prices districts pay for the same hardware and software product can range between 20 percent and 40 percent, the researchers found.
The Arizona Legislature has passed one of the most expansive school-voucher programs in the nation. The program gives public funds to students to use on private-school tuition, therapies and other educational services. Republican lawmakers narrowly approved the plan, which allows an estimated 30,000 students to take part in the program by 2022.
The small Connecticut town, just south of the Massachusetts border, is in its fifth year under a system that asks students to master specific skills in every subject.