Recent Research: Budgets and Taxes

The concept of privatization is relatively simple: a shifting of a government-provided service or aspects of it to a private business subject to the rigors of a competitive marketplace.

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.

A value-added tax (VAT) is a sales tax applied at each stage of production for a good or service, instead of only at the point of final sale.

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: