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.

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    • HEADLINES: Indiana

      Senate makes few changes to proposed state budget

      The Post-Tribune | by Matt Mikus | April 9, 2013

      The Senate budget would spend $29.5 billion over two years, ending with $2.5 billion in reserves, and would include a 3 percent cut to the state income tax.

    • HEADLINES: Ohio

      Gov. John Kasich's education budget about to be amended by the Ohio House

      The Cleveland Plain Dealer | by Edith Starzyk | April 8, 2013

      The buzz in Columbus is that Kasich's school funding plan - under construction over the past two years -- will be dumped by his fellow Republicans in control of the legislature when a slew of budget amendments are unveiled on Tuesday.

    • HEADLINES: New Mexico

      Governor signs budget with raise for state workers

      The Santa Fe New Mexican | April 8, 2013

      New Mexico's state workers and educators are in line for their first across-the-board pay increase in four years under a nearly $5.9 billion state budget signed into law Friday by Gov. Susana Martinez.

    • HEADLINES: Texas

      $93.5 Billion Texas State Budget Approved

      NBCDFW.com | by Paul J. Weber | April 5, 2013

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

    • HEADLINES: Washington

      State Senate GOP budget: no new taxes, $1B more for schools

      The Seattle Times | by Andrew Garber | April 4, 2013

      The GOP-led state Senate issued its budget proposal Wednesday, highlighting $1.2 billion in "spending constraints and savings" and no new taxes - a different approach from Gov. Jay Inslee's.

    • HEADLINES: New York

      New York State budget: Senate passes bill with $350 tax rebate, minimum wage hike

      Newsday | by Yancey Roy | March 27, 2013

      New York's Senate approved a roughly $136 billion budget that raises the minimum wage to $9 per hour over three years and offers a $350 rebate to families with children, completing the votes a little over two hours before dawn on Wednesday.

    • HEADLINES: Rhode Island

      RI lawmakers to review school budget

      NBC10 | March 25, 2013

      Rhode Island state lawmakers are continuing their review of Gov. Lincoln Chafee's $8.2 billion state budget proposal by giving close examination to education funding. Chafee's proposal would increase public education spending by $30 million.

    • HEADLINES: North Carolina

      McCrory's budget includes pay hike for state workers, hire 1,800 more teachers

      The Charlotte Observer | by John Frank and Rob Christensen | March 20, 2013

      Gov. Pat McCrory proposed a modest $20.6 billion state budget Wednesday that includes a 1 percent pay hike for state employees but limits spending growth to 2 percent.

    • HEADLINES: Idaho

      Breaking down the state budget

      KTVB.com | by Scott Evans | March 13, 2013

      Idaho lawmakers have set the 2014 state budget. It's the third highest budget in state history.

    • HEADLINES: Illinois

      Quinn's budget to call for education cuts

      The Chicago Tribune | by Monique Garcia and Ray Long | March 6, 2013

      The education cuts of nearly 3 percent are necessary because the state's annual pension payments - now more than $6 billion a year - will divert money from other government operations, Gov. Pat Quinn has said.


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    • 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.


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