New IPEDS data available

Data on --financial aid, retention and graduation rates, etc. for higher ed. "...findings include:

• In fall 2010, Title IV institutions enrolled 19 million undergraduate and 3 million graduate students. Of the 19 million undergraduates, 56 percent were enrolled in 4-year institutions, 42 percent in 2-year institutions, and 2 percent in less-than-2-year institutions.
• Approximately 58 percent of full-time, first-time students attending 4-year institutions in 2004 who were seeking a bachelor’s or equivalent degree completed a bachelor’s or equivalent degree within 6 years at the institution where they began their studies.
• Overall, first-time undergraduate student 1-year retention rates were higher for full-time students (72 percent) than for part-time students (44 percent)."

To view the full report please visit
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012280

Clark County SD in the news

An article in the New York Times, "Given Money, Schools Wait on Rehiring Teachers," quoted Jeff Weiler, chief financial officer for Clark County schools, "“We’re a little wary about hiring people if we only have money for a year, but we know that’s the intent of this bill.” The article goes on to suggest the stimulus monies may not have the desired effect because of this collective financial caution among school administrators. Teachers unions, are of course, pushing for the money to be used to rehire laid off teachers and reduce class size.

HIgher ed finance and the upcoming gubernatorial elections

Citing the most recent (2009) "State Higher Education Finance" report, Inside Higher Ed  ( Aug. 5) provides an overview of economic projections and the issues that face higher ed financially in the next few years. They also review some of the promises made by gubernatorial candidates about protecting higher ed even though jobs--not education--is the major election issue right now. Nevada is mentioned briefly as focusing on eliminating duplicate programs.

New report on public school revenues and expenditures: 2007-2008

"This brief publication contains basic revenue and expenditure data, by state, for public elementary and secondary education for school year 2007-08. It contains state-level data on revenues by source and expenditures by function, including expenditures per pupil."
The full report is linked here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010326

Why the discrepancies in funding higher ed institutions?

This article in today's Inside Higher Ed suggests that proximity to the state capital and which party is in power all may play a role. But location isn't destiny and they offer ideas for increasing your piece of the pie.

Fiscal year 2007 data on revenues/expenditures for public elementary & secondary schools

"The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences. The data are reported by state education agencies (SEAs). The finance data are reported to the U.S. Census Bureau, which acts as the data collection agent for NCES. Student membership data are reported to the U.S. Department of Education’s EDFacts data collection system. This report presents findings on public education revenues and expenditures using fiscal year 2007 (FY 07) data from the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS) of the CCD survey system. Programs covered in the NPEFS include regular, special, and vocational education; charter schools (if they reported data to the SEA); and state-run education programs (such as special education centers or education programs for incarcerated youth).

The CCD NPEFS is a universe collection of public elementary and secondary education finance data reported annually by SEAs in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the four other jurisdictions of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The NPEFS provides SEA-level data for all revenues and expenditures associated with each reporting state or jurisdiction, including revenues by source and expenditures by function and object." (from the Introduction at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/expenditures/)

Links to all Table data (also available in Excel format) are here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/expenditures/tables.asp

Link to the full report is here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009337

Re-invest in higher ed: commentary

This article in Dec. 16 Inside Higher Ed caught my attention because it is written by the president of my former employer, Oregon State University. Ed Ray is an economist by training and says, in part,
"At a time when our global competitors from Ireland to China are investing aggressively in their higher education systems, almost every state in our nation is headed the other direction. This pattern, now nearly three decades old, not only hampers our ability to be engines for economic prosperity, it also threatens our historic — and essential — role in creating opportunity for students who have traditionally looked to us as their gateway to success....

Lest we forget, that public mission is to provide higher education opportunities to students who often come from ordinary or worse economic and social circumstances, many of whom are capable of accomplishing extraordinary things. In fact, the history and the promise of this great nation is predicated on the fact that social and economic mobility have provided the dynamism that has created the most technologically sophisticated and prosperous nation on earth. Education has been the most powerful source of that mobility and dynamism. If public universities are forced to abandon that public mission for lack of funding, we are at risk as a nation of creating a permanent underclass of disadvantaged citizens who have little or no stake in our society and of losing the dynamism that has served us so well at the very moment when challenges we face relative to global economic competition have never been greater.

There are further, clear benefits to society within this public mission. The average college graduate working full time, for instance, pays roughly 134 percent more in federal income taxes and about 80 percent more in total federal, state and local taxes than the average high school graduate....

Our public universities have represented hope to generations of Americans. In a campaign year in which the concept of hope has become central to our electoral dialogue, we must not forget that real hope, meaningful hope, requires financial investment and that among the institutions in need of a financial rescue plan, public higher education must be a top priority."

Read it all!

State funding for higher education: Fiscal year 2007

The fifth annual SHEEO State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) study of state support
for higher education was issued today. There is an article summarizing the reports findings in today's Inside Higher Education; it includes a table comparing public higher ed institutions in all states. Nevada has higher than the national average for per student appropriations but appears to net considerably less of the tuition.

School district revenues and expenditures

The most recent data released by NCES is for fiscal year 2006. Specifics on what the report covers are summarized below. While Nevada was near the median in terms of both revenues and expenditures, there was over a 200% difference in expenditures per student for schools with the lowest vs. the highest revenues. The report is fairly brief with the bulk of information presented in tables.

"The School District Finance Survey for School Year 2005-06 (fiscal year 2006), part of the Common Core of Data (CCD), presents data submitted annually to NCES by state education agencies (SEAs) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. All financial transactions associated with assets, expenditures, revenues, and indebtedness are accounted for, including revenues from federal, state, and local sources and expenditures in categories such as instruction and instruction-related activities, student support services, administration, operation, capital outlay, and debt services... this report focuses on school districts that operate public schools and charter school districts.

The survey found that regular school districts had median total revenues per pupil of $10,173 in FY 06. The federal range ratio was 1.9, which indicates that the magnitude of the difference between total revenues per pupil at the 5th ($7,349) and 95th ($21,048) percentiles of districts was approximately 190 percent. Independent charter school districts had median total revenues per pupil of $8,357 in FY 06, with a federal range ratio of 1.9. For regular school districts, median current expenditures per pupil were $8,587 in FY 06. Median expenditures per pupil on instruction and instruction-related activities in regular school districts were $5,528. For independent charter school districts, median current expenditures per pupil were $7,499 in FY 06. Median expenditures per pupil on instruction and instruction-related activities in independent charter school districts were $4,123."