K-12 Education

Together, states and  localities, pay more than 90 percent of the cost of public K-12 education, according to the State Budget Crisis Task Force, and that expenditure takes up a huge percentage of state budgets--more than 20% of total expenditures. In many states, including Colorado, K-12 education is the largest General Fund expenditure. Despite the millions of state dollars poured into K-12 education every year, America's school systems are failing to turn out successful students, as a Harvard study showed that U.S. math and reading competency scores fell below the global average. See our study "Throwing Money At Education Isn't Working" to learn what your state is pending, how students there are performing, and how that ranks with the rest of the country.

States need to fix their education problems, and they need to find budget-friendly ways to do so. Here are our Top 5 Questions to Ask Your School Board Officials About the School Budget.

  • Breaking News
  • Research
  • Solutions
  • Commentary
    • HEADLINES: Nebraska

      Gov. Heineman vetoes $44.6M from state budget

      KLKNTV.com | by Kayla Bremer | May 26, 2013

      The governor cut $28 million in state and federal funding for a new Medicaid computer system.

    • HEADLINES: Ohio

      Senate Democrats want more money for schools in state budget

      The Columbus Dispatch | by Jim Siegel | May 23, 2013

      Senate Democrats want to direct $508 million more to Ohio schools over the next two years by eliminating part of a GOP-proposed tax cut for upper-income Ohioans.

    • HEADLINES: Texas

      House-Senate deal clears Texas budget logjam

      The Dallas Morning News | by Robert T. Garrett | May 23, 2013

      A logjam on the budget broke swiftly late Wednesday as the House and Senate advanced water and school fund measures each was demanding of the other.

    • HEADLINES: Michigan

      Gov, GOP reach deal on surplus

      The Detroit News | by Chad Livengood | May 22, 2013

      Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislative leaders reached an agreement Tuesday on how to divvy up nearly $702 million in surplus revenue as lawmakers race to complete the 2014 fiscal year budget by June 1.

    • HEADLINES: Texas

      Texas budget deal struck, but will Perry approve?

      The Houston Chronicle | by Paul J. Weber | May 20, 2013

      House and Senate negotiators settled Friday on a roughly $100 billion state budget. It would reverse most of the historic spending cuts that socked Texas classrooms in 2011, give state employees a modest raise and still afford Republicans the political cover of not busting a cap on state spending.

    • HEADLINES: Louisiana

      State budget, school funding are top issues

      The Monroe News Star | by Mike Hasten | May 20, 2013

      Members of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday immediately started poking holes in a $25 billion state spending plan the House of Representatives approved last week.

    • HEADLINES: Illinois

      State universities, colleges agree to slowly pick up pension costs

      The State Journal-Register | by Doug Finke | May 17, 2013

      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.

    • HEADLINES: Arizona

      Arizona Senate begins moving budget bills, could pass within days of introduction

      The Republic | by Bob Christie and Christina Silva | May 16, 2013

      The Arizona Senate began a final sprint to adjournment Wednesday as a committee debated 10 bills that provide $8.8 billion to fund education, health and welfare, and expansion of Medicaid.

    • HEADLINES: Texas

      State budget negotiators meeting. Is there a deal?

      MySanAntonio.com | by Peggy Fikac | May 16, 2013

      Even though the GOP has a legislative majority, leaders need Democratic support to take money for water from the state's rainy day fund because it requires a two-thirds vote.

    • HEADLINES: Indiana

      Pence signs two-year Indiana budget

      NWI Times | by Dan Carden | May 9, 2013

      Gov. Mike Pence on Wednesday signed into law Indiana's $30 billion, two-year state budget that keeps spending increases below the inflation rate and provides Hoosiers more than a billion dollars in tax cuts.


    • Previous   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12   Next

    • SOLUTIONS

      Fiscal Issues and School Choice

      Foundation for Educational Choice | by Benjamin Scafidi | December 5, 2012

      Ben Scafidi's PowerPoint presentation, "Some Fiscal Issues and School Choice."

    • SOLUTIONS: North Carolina

      Technology in the Classroom Paying Off

      American Legislator | by John Stephenson | March 9, 2012

      With state and local education budgets under pressure and questions about student achievement front and center, administrators, parents, and teachers are now looking to advanced and increasingly less-expensive technology as a way to help address some of the current issues in education. One school district in particular, the Mooresville Graded School District, in Mooresville, NC stands out as an example of how technology can help improve student achievement in times of tightening budgets

    • SOLUTIONS: South Carolina

      Ditching No Child Left Behind - all of it

      The South Carolina Policy Council | December 2, 2011

      South Carolina should refuse federal No Child Left Behind Funds and the accompanying mandates and find a way to fund poor school districts adequately.

    • SOLUTIONS: South Carolina

      Online Learning: A Solution for South Carolina

      The South Carolina Policy Council | by Dennis J. Nielsen, Ed.D. | December 2, 2011

      Online learning can help at-risk students and is also cost-effective. Per pupil costs at the state’s virtual charter schools are an estimated 25 percent to 65 percent lower than at traditional public schools.

    • SOLUTIONS: North Carolina

      Education spending in North Carolina

      The John Locke Foundation | by Terry Stoops | December 2, 2011

      The state should discontinue the confusing practice of allocating funds to each school district using various funding formulas. Coupled with open enrollment for schools statewide, student-centered funding would ensure that schools of the parents' choosing receive funds necessary to educate each child and nothing more. The state should also implement a merit pay system for teachers that will pay a portion of their salary based on the value that they add to their students' academic performance.

    • SOLUTIONS: Mississippi

      Educating Children

      The Mississippi Center for Public Policy | December 2, 2011

      Parents should have more control over how tax funds are spent on their own children. Our state should allow more freedom for parents to choose - or even create - public schools that best meet their children's needs. T

    • SOLUTIONS: Arkansas

      Advancing Virtual Education in Arkansas

      The Arkansas Policy Foundation | December 2, 2011

      Explanation and review of virtual education in Arkansas.

    • SOLUTIONS: Arkansas

      Budget Alternative: 2011-2013 Biennium

      The Arkansas Policy Foundation | by Greg Kaza | December 2, 2011

      Funding for core Arkansas government functions-education, corrections and transportation-could occur at slightly increased rates while other operations are frozen at current levels, providing $31 million in savings to cut state income, capital gains and grocery tax rates.

    • SOLUTIONS: Louisiana

      Student Based Budgeting Viewed as Logical Extension of Charter School Movement

      The Pelican Post | by Kevin Mooney | December 2, 2011

      The idea behind student based budgeting (SBB) is for school dollars to be dispersed on a per-pupil basis and to follow individual students into schools where the principals determine how the money is best spent.

    • SOLUTIONS: Texas

      The Texas Taxpayer Savings Grant Program

      The Texas Public Policy Foundation | by Talmadge Heflin | December 2, 2011

      The Texas Taxpayer Savings Grant Program is designed to reduce the amount of general revenue spent on public education by reducing enrollment in and the associated costs of the state’s public K-12 schools. The program works by reimbursing parents and legal guardians for “the amount of actual tuition costs or 60 percent of the state average per- pupil spending maintenance and operations expenditures, whichever is less,” should they choose to enroll their child in a private school, rather than a Texas public school.


    • 1  2  3  4   Next