Recent Research: Education

The Blob That Ate the Schools

Greg Foster
January 3, 2011

Here’s an eye-opening school statistic for you: Only half of Oklahoma’s public education employees are teachers. The bureaucracy is now so big, it takes up half the system. It’s the blob that ate the schools.

Teachers’ unions, and the lousy teachers they protect, have become the central villain in the epic drama of education reform. And well they deserve the role—teachers’ unions exist to fatten themselves by destroying children’s lives.

Students benefit from Expanded Open Enrollment

Deborah D. Thornton
January 1, 2011

 

How Higher Tuition Translates into More Debt for State Universities

Simon Wong
October 12, 2010

The S.C. Budget and Control Board recently announced a moratorium halting construction at four-year public institutions that raised tuition by 7 percent or more for the 2010-2011 school year.

The moratorium applies only to institutions that raised tuition by 7 percent or more. This means it does not apply to the University of South Carolina, which raised tuition by 6.9 percent. But it does apply to Clemson, which raised tuition by 7.5 percent.

So how is tuition connected to capital building projects?

Higher Education in South Carolina: Cut Administrative Costs and Focus on Student Performance

Simon Wong
September 28, 2010

While South Carolinians can take pride in our state’s higher educational system, costs and tuition have skyrocketed in recent years, even as graduation rates remain below 40 percent. At the same time, South Carolina’s leading universities have been drawn away from their core mission and increasingly become conduits for the Legislature’s economic development plans. The solution is to refocus on student performance, cut administrative costs and look to innovative technology that will improve both access and affordability.

Actual Pay: A Survey of Missouri Public School Superintendent Salary and Benefit Packages

Audrey Spalding
July 29, 2010

In this interesting paper, Show-Me Institute researcher Audrey Spalding analyzes a topic that has received little systematic study: the compensation of school superintendents. School superintendents are the CEOs of our public school districts. Missouri school districts spend roughly $ 9,500 per student in current operating expenses. This rises to nearly $ 13,000 per student when capital expenditures are included. Superintendents, with the approval of their boards, make important decisions about how these resources are allocated.

How Much Does Each Diploma Cost?

June 14, 2010

HARTFORD – The average Connecticut high school graduate cost taxpayers about $133,000 from kindergarten through senior year, according to new research by the Yankee Institute. For high school graduates in the city of Hartford, which has the state’s most expensive graduates, that figure climbed to just under $200,000 per graduate, the data shows.

Using data from the Connecticut Department of Education, the Yankee Institute has ranked every Connecticut public high school by the lifetime cost of education per graduate. The five most expensive and least expensive diplomas are:

Education Model Policy Manual

Richard Fusco and Armand A. Fusco, ED.D.
March 3, 2010

School board policies that are found in a policy manual provide the parameters for the administration to manage the district based on the beliefs and philosophy of each board of education. The importance of policies cannot be overemphasized because in addition to establishing the guidelines for the administration, they also should serve to prevent the loss, abuse or misuse of school human, physical and financial resources thereby maximizing available resources.