The problem of this thesis is to examine the Gilmer-Aikin plan as it will affect the Montague County, Texas, schools in order to ascertain whether present inequities, if any, will be corrected, and to present additional remedial proposals if needed.

The problem of this study is to determine the soundness of the Gilmer-Aikin Law financially and administratively. No attempt will be made to apply the principles of the law to any particular area or school district, but the law will be considered as a whole as it will apply to the schools of Texas in general.

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With limited state and local funds as well as a growing student population, how elected decision makers allocate money to impact college readiness needs to be explored. The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of instructional expenditures on educational outcomes. This multivariate multiple regression study specifically explored the impact of instructional expenditure ratios and per pupil instructional expenditures of every public school district in Texas on student performance college readiness indicators measured by state assessments (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness [STAAR] Mathematics and English Language Arts [ELA] test scores) and national assessments (American College Test [ACT] and Scholastic Assessment Test [SAT] scores) over a 5-year period. Fifteen different regression models were established with various significant predictors of expenditures and revenue funds. These models explained up to 46% of the variance for college readiness scores over the 5-year period.

In the opening decades of the 21st Century, a movement towards parental choice in public schools has taken flight. One of the choices becoming more readily available to parents of young children is charter schools. Charter schools are expanding across the United States and Central Florida is representative of this growth. Parents are faced with more choices as they make decisions on their children's educational future than ever before making the availability of quality, accurate information about local schools paramount. While scholarly work on charter schools, the effects of media coverage on public opinion, and how parents make choices for their children exists, in many cases the research offers inconclusive results and rarely was there an attempt to connect all three. This paper, written from a parent's perspective, analyzes research, newspaper articles, interviews, and surveys of Central Florida's media outlets, public school representatives, and parents of young children to determine the types of information on charter schools available to parents of young children in Central Florida. The purpose of this thesis will be to investigate the information available to parents when considering a charter school for their young children by comparing the stated opinions of the local media, district school boards, and the charters themselves. It also identifies who is responsible for disseminating this information, and how the parents choose to gather and use this information.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / David Thompson / This present study extended the longitudinal perspective begun by DeBacker (2002) and Jordan (2012) and, when considered wholly, provides insights into the educational experiences offered by districts in the state of Kansas from the years 1992 through 2017, as well as the impacts that changes to school funding had on those experiences. This study assessed selected fiscal and pupil performance variables and examined the impacts that changes to school funding had on those variables, paying close attention to the shift from per pupil funding under the School District Finance and Quality Performance Act (SDFQPA) of 1992 to block grant funding under the Classroom Learning Assuring Student Success (CLASS) Act from 2015 to 2017. In the first phase of this study, Kansas school districts were ordered from wealthiest to poorest based on their assessed valuation per pupil for 2001. To narrow the study population and to ensure that longitudinal analysis could occur, districts that had closed or consolidated by 2016 were removed. For the remaining districts, decile analysis was applied to the population by ranking all 289 school districts from wealthiest to poorest based on 2001 assessed valuation per pupil (AVPP) and by further dividing the population in to ten equal parts (i.e. each decile representing 10% of the population). The population was again narrowed to the representative sample of 112 school districts, with Decile 10 representing the wealthiest 10% of districts, Decile 1 representing the poorest 10%, and Deciles 5 and 6 representing the average wealth districts found in the middle (each representing 10% of the population respectively). This process was repeated for 2011, 2014, and 2016. For this study, 2001 and 2016 served as the bookend years, as DeBacker (2002) had done (1992 – 2001) and Jordan (2012) had repeated (2002 – 2012). Establishing the beginning year as 2001 ensured overlap of years examined by both previous studies and extending through the most recent year of audited data, i.e., 2016. Once the study population was established, data analysis was conducted in two phases. First, fiscal and pupil performance data were analyzed to provide insight into overall health of each district during the years 2001- 2016. Second, survey and interview data were collected and analyzed to glean insights from district leaders for contextual perspective of the impacts that changes to school funding had on districts and their leaders, paying close attention to the years of block grant funding under CLASS. The present study resulted in a critical examination of fiscal and pupil performance variables and the impact that changes to school finance in Kansas had on the educational experience of Kansas pupils.

The financing of public schools in South Africa is dependent on school fees to a great extent. However, the legislative process governing the charging of school fees perpetuates the entrenched inequality in the education system and violates the constitutional rights of those learners who are unable to afford school fees and other educational costs. This study examines the impact of the school funding system on the right to basic education of these learners, who are in most instances black and/or poor.

The financing of public schools in South Africa is dependent on school fees to a great extent. However, the legislative process governing the charging of school fees perpetuates the entrenched inequality in the education system and violates the constitutional rights of those learners who are unable to afford school fees and other educational costs. This study examines the impact of the school funding system on the right to basic education of these learners, who are in most instances black and/or poor.