Kansas Lawmakers wrapped up the 2013 session, narrowly passing a budget that reduces spending through major cuts, particularly to higher education.

It will soon be Gov. Rick Snyder’s turn to officially sign off on Michigan’s next state spending plan for schools and state departments.

Scott's extensive veto list is more than twice as large as his list last year, and his largest since his first year in office. It slashed state spending from $74.5 billion to $74.1 billion.

A plan to gradually shift ongoing pension costs to state universities and community colleges surfaced in the Illinois House Thursday and could be the model for shifting pension costs for K-12 schools.

Presidents of public universities are taking home bigger paychecks, and a growing number are raking in more than $1 million.

Legislators seemed concerned the state's higher education budget could not support adding degree programs at community colleges.

The House plan boosts state spending across the board by 7 percent.

When the Democratic-led House takes up its budget tomorrow, speeches will be made and a half-dozen or more floor amendments will be offered but Republicans - now in the minority - say they don't plan to prolong the debate or delay the vote.

As universities and colleged continue to struggle with declining revenues, states are increasingly looking to performance-based funding in an effort to get more bang for their limited higher education dollars.

From fiscal year 2003 through fiscal year 2012, state general fund budgets increased 34 percent, almost exactly in line with population growth and inflation. But that growth wasn't evenly shared across program areas.

The sixth-annual Tennessee Pork Report is chock-full yet again, of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of taxpayer money by state and local government officials. Despite a changing political landscape in Tennessee, wasteful government spending has not disappeared.

An evaluation of the current system of higher education accreditation as well as proposed reforms on all of the most important dimensions and demonstrates how public policies addressing one issue can create or exacerbate problems in others.

In some cases, the institutions of higher education in Misouri are doing a great job; in others, not so well. The purpose of the report is not to be punitive, but to address ways higher education in Missouri can be more accountable and transparent. The report is designed to showcase information and data of interest to students, parents, alumni, and taxpayers.

Are students learning the things they need to know? Is there a healthy exchange of ideas? Are trustees upholding the public trust? Are taxpayers getting a good value for their money? These are the kinds of questions to which the people of Minnesota deserve answers. It is the goal of this report card to provide answers and to help Minnesota—a state rightly known for its passion for education—be a national standard bearer for excellence, accountability, and efficiency in higher education.

At the most basic level, the course on which Illinois' public universities find themselves is unsustainable. Costs are rising too quickly, and quality is not high enough.

Merely spending money is not enough - the question arises: is Washington getting good value for its public expenditures? Washington spends a lot on colleges, but relatively few of its citizens graduate from college. Moreover, the evidence suggests costs are rising rather significantly over time. Staffs are typically increasing faster than student enrollments. For all the concerns about inadequate state support heard from university leaders, the evidence shows Washington treats higher education more generously than most of its neighbors or other American states, while in some respects it may get less in results.

Texas is well-placed to build on existing strengths relative to other states in the areas of tuition costs, student loan indebtedness and civic education requirements. Moreover, our legislators and universities have committed to increasing graduation rates, online learning opportunities and accountability in public higher education.

A guide to needed reforms in pensions, taxes and higher education, among other areas, with  two types of goals that are important when working towards limiting government: long-term policy objectives that show the end-game goals and short-term policies that steer public policy towards the long-term goals. This guide provides both.

Ten ideas to cut waste and balance the buget without raising taxes, including more efficient K-12 funding, spending high education tax dollars more wisely and rein in state employee salaries and benefits.

In light of Oregon facing a budget crisis, the Taxpayer Foundation has issued a master list of budget balancing ideas that do not require raising taxes. These ideas have been collected from Oregon lawmakers, think tank groups, taxpayer organizations, unions, policy analysts, Democrats, Republicans and even ideas utilized in states across the nation.

Establish limited priorities for Oklahoma’s state government. Once limited priorities are set, everything else should be considered according to these priorities. The state currently has hundreds of agencies, boards, and commissions; it’s no wonder there is chronic overspending and regular “revenue shortfalls.”

With shrinking budgets and growing demand for immediate solutions, lawmakers need to know what questions to ask and where to turn for fast, reliable information to make informed higher education policy decisions.

The time has come for openness and accountability in post-secondary education. The best way to achieve this is through performance audits, which look at all facets of an institution-from student input/outcome data to faculty process data to all aspects of financial data. This project is to develop areas of process for a Performance Audit Guide used to evaluate how public (and/or private) institutions use student, public, and donor funds to meet the institutions' primary missions.

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) identified 25 ways to reduce college costs and has produced an extensive book-length study to explore them.

This paper examines the broader economic studies that attempt to correlate expenditure with results. He finds that the results are not as favorable as they are often said to be, and he offers some explanations for why.

The document explains why and how New York state developed such massive budget deficits and identifies programmatic changes to begin closing the gaps, including privatization and competitive contracting, cost reductions and tax policy goals to promote economic growth.

ALEC has a variety of model legislation addressing several different aspects of higher education, including accountability, quality and funding.