No Guarantees: Rating the Cost Efficiency of Virginia School Districts, January 2008
Does cost-efficiency of state programs matter? Governor Tim Kaine argued that it does. When confronted with a state budget shortfall in excess of $641 million, the governor advised state legislative finance committees that the state would “need to look for new ways of doing business that are more efficient.”
The most logical place to begin evaluating efficiency is in the state’s single largest program, its public school system, which consumes more than a third of the state government’s budget and over half of all local governments’ budgets. Are school districts putting tax dollars to the best and highest use? Do all districts operate with equal cost-efficiency? This report evaluates those quedstions using Virginai Department of Education data.
Education Funding in Virginia: Aligning State Dollars to Achievement Priorities, December 2005
State costs for Virginai public schools increased by $1.28 billion in 2004 and $1.5 billion in 2006. Yet legislators have no idea how much state funding –≥–∞—Ä–∞–∂–Ω—ã–µ actually reaches a given student or cheap mlb jerseys schoo, or what state dollars buy in terms of educational achievement and performance.
This report examines the process, limitations, and flaws in Virginia’s Standards Buy of –≤ Quality funding system — a “district-based” funding method implemented decades before wholesale mlb jerseys student achievement became state and national priorities. It also explores a “student-based” funding model that would be more transparent and supportive of the state’s achievement priorities.
Society’s Watchdogs: A Study of Newspaper Coverage of Education News & Reforms in One State, June 2005
Daily newspapers are losing their time-honored place as the primary forum for the American conversation. According to recent studies, Americans now rate daily newspapers less “believable” than television news, delegaci√≥n and most Americans think newspaper reporters are out of touch with mainstream society.
This study’s findings, based on telephone surveys of print cheap jerseys reporters and analysis of 403 education-related articles published over eight months by four daily news publishers in Virginia, suggest the public’s criticism may be warranted when it comes to coverage of elementary and secondary education.
Too Much of a Good Thing: Staffing and Students in Virginia’s School Districts, May 2005
Between 1997 and 2004, more than half of Virginia’s public school districts posted a net decrease in student enrollment and a net increase in instructional staff positions. No wonder local wholesale nfl jerseys property taxes are soaring.
Paying Private Prep School Prices for Public Schools, April 2002
The per-pupil cost of educating a student in Virginia’s public schools is almost twice the average tuitiion in the state’s private schools. In several Virginia school districts, per-pupil spending in public schools now exceed the tuition charged by many elite private prep schools.