scholarly journals Finding Resources to Reduce Class-size

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Odden ◽  
Sarah Archibald

This article discusses how a medium-sized school district in Wisconsin was able to reallocate resources to reduce class sizes in grades K-5 without spending more money or increasing its tax rate. Previous research on resource reallocation found that the bulk of reallocated resources were those supporting categorical program services. This district was able to use a different strategy. As a growing district, its marginal costs of adding an extra class of students were much less than its average expenditures per pupil, which were reimbursed by the state school finance formula. As the district grew, therefore, it acquired excess revenues. Also, by implementing full-day kindergarten, the district acquired more excess revenues because this added (0.5 pupil) X (Number of kindergartners) to its current enrollment, and the cost of educating these students was less than the amount they received from the state funding formula. It then used these revenues to reduce class sizes to between 15 and 20 in all Kindergarten through grade 3 classrooms and to between 15 and 22 for grades 4-5.

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (13) ◽  
pp. 2616-2634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Eseverri Mayer

This comparative study focuses on how civil society structures influence youth from a Muslim background in their upward mobility and local belonging (to the neighbourhood and to the city). Under comparison are one banlieue in Paris and one barrio in Madrid, similar in terms of social precarity and yet different in their degree of ethnic and religious diversity, their connection to the city centre, the state funding they receive and their civic participation. In the case of the neighbourhood of San Cristóbal (Madrid), a lack of state investment has resulted in a diminished capacity for civil society to connect young people to new opportunities. However, their daily contact with the city centre, the ethnic diversity in the neighbourhood and collaborative efforts between secular and religious structures work together to foster a sense of mixed belonging among young Spanish Muslims. In contrast, significant investment by the State in the suburb of Les Bosquets (Paris) since the riots in 2005 have indeed linked young people to new opportunities, but at the cost of an institutionalisation of civil society structures. In Les Bosquets, increased ethnic segregation, geographical isolation, and the estrangement of religious and ‘laic’ (i.e. secular) organisations are all responsible for the new sense of malaise felt by youths, thus severely affecting their sense of belonging.


AMBIO ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1304-1313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanna Lötjönen ◽  
Markku Ollikainen

Abstract We examine the abatement costs for water and climate pollutants and their respective policies while accounting for cobenefits. We construct private and social marginal cost curves for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient runoff in Finnish agriculture. We find that the social marginal costs of reducing emissions that reflect the cobenefits are lower than the private costs. Accounting for greenhouse gas cobenefits from nutrient load reduction or water cobenefits from climate emissions reduction creates a gap between privately and socially optimal reduction levels. This gap varies depending on the valuation of cobenefits. The cost-efficient reduction of the focus pollutant is increased when cobenefits from the other pollutant are accounted for. For policies, this implies a higher cap or tax on the focus pollutant. We decompose the optimal tax rate to a basic tax on the focus pollutant and on an additional tax component depending on the level of cobenefits.


2020 ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
O. M. Zaliska ◽  
К.-О. Ya. Stasiv ◽  
N. M. Maksymovych

In Ukraine, in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the State Strategy for the Implementation of the State Policy for the Provision of the Population with Medicines for the Period until 2025 has been approved, which includes improving the availability of drugs to improve the quality of life. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) are gaining widespread implementation and funding from the budget in the world. Goal – the aim of the work was to analyze the state and dynamics of ART cycles in Ukraine for 1999–2019 and to estimate the cost of ART in Ukraine and to develop a methodology for estimating the availability of ART and comparison with European countries. Materials – international and domestic publications on the assessment of the availability of drugs, the cost of ART. Research methods: system analysis, data synthesis and generalization of information, webometric analysis, statistical analysis of data on the number of ART cycles for 1999-2018, analysis of ART costs. It is determined that the indicator of the number of ART cycles per 1 million population increased 29.9 times for 1999–2018, which is due to the increase in the number of ART centers conducted ART cycles in relation to the decrease in the population of Ukraine. It was found that 85% of ART centers are concentrated in only 4 cities (Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv), which reduces the accessibility of the population to ART cycles, especially in the conditions of quarantine and pandemic COVID-19. It was found that in 1999–2018 the number of ART centers increased 7.7 times, but only 10.8% of ART centers have state funding, which indicates the low availability of ART for budget funds. It was found that the structure of ART cycles changed significantly. The average costs for the most common ART cycles IVF and ICSI in Ukraine as of the end of 2019 have been determined. It has been shown that only 26% of ART centers provide information on the cost of ART cycles, and web pages need to be filled with information on the cost of ART cycles to ensure that patients are properly informed. It is shown that in Ukraine as of 2020 the costs of ART cycles are 24 425–30 516 UAH (917,25–1 010,57 Euro) depending on the type of cycle from the perspective of the payer. It is estimated that the availability of ART is 1.5–9.98 depending on the type of ART cycle, the cost of ART cycles is 6–10 times higher than the average family income, when in European countries the availability of ART is much lower 1,5–4.2, which showed higher availability of ART in European countries from payer prospect.


2005 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. King ◽  
Austin D. Swanson ◽  
Scott R. Sweetland

In addition to setting high standards for student performance, educational policies must consider what resources are essential to provide an adequate educational program to meet all students' learning needs. Policy makers also want to ensure that educators make efficient use of available resources. In this exploration of school finance policy, we advance a conception of adequacy as the ideal state of vertical equity, examine the evolution of this concept through judicial reviews, and discuss methods for determining the level of funding required to achieve adequacy. We then discuss economic and political problems inherent in institutional inefficiencies that are likely to derail efforts to raise achievement in poorly performing schools even after granting them an adequate level of resources. The paper concludes with a description of how a state funding formula might provide a foundation for adequacy in all districts.


2020 ◽  
pp. 28-43
Author(s):  
A. S. Kaukin ◽  
E. М. Miller

The paper analyzes the consequences of the abolition of the export duty on oil and oil products as a necessary step to stimulate energy efficiency of Russia’s economy and eliminate underdevelopment provoked by a long-term subsidizing of inefficient oil refining sector in Russia. The calculation results have shown that even taking into account several deviations from the planned scenarios of changing the parameters of tax regulation of the oil industry in 2014— 2019, the tax maneuver brought over 3.5 trillion rubles (in 2019 — 148 billion rubles) to the state budget in 2014—2017, mainly due to an increase in the base mineral extraction tax rate, and contributed to an increase in the depth of oil refining from 72% to 85%. In addition, the article analyzes possible risks associated with the current plan for reforming the taxation of the industry until 2024 and proposes an alternative that could level some of them. A comparative analysis of the effects of the tax maneuver under the current reform plan and the alternative variant suggests that the latter will allow to achieve a greater total budgetary effect in four years, reduce the cost of subsidizing domestic oil refining, increase the efficiency of Russian vertically integrated oil companies, and reduce the growth rate of oil products prices in the retail market.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 964-990
Author(s):  
N.I. Kulikov ◽  
V.L. Parkhomenko ◽  
Akun Anna Stefani Rozi Mobio

Subject. We assess the impact of tight financial and monetary policy of the government of the Russian Federation and the Bank of Russia on the level of household income and poverty reduction in Russia. Objectives. The purpose of the study is to analyze the results of financial and monetary policy in Russia and determine why the situation with household income and poverty has not changed for the recent six years, and the GDP growth rate in Russia is significantly lagging behind the global average. Methods. The study employs methods of analysis of scientific and information base, and synthesis of obtained data. The methodology and theoretical framework draw upon works of domestic and foreign scientists on economic and financial support to economy and population’s income. Results. We offer measures for liberalization of the financial and monetary policy of the government and the Central Bank to ensure changes in the structure of the Russian economy. The proposed alternative economic and financial policy of the State will enable the growth of real incomes of the population, poverty reduction by half by 2024, and annual GDP growth up to 6 per cent. Conclusions. It is crucial to change budget priorities, increase the salaries of public employees, introduce a progressive tax rate for individuals; to reduce the key rate to the value of annual inflation and limit the bank margin. The country needs a phased program to increase the population's income, which will ensure consumer demand.


Author(s):  
Vitaly Lobas ◽  
◽  
Elena Petryaeva ◽  

The article deals with modern mechanisms for managing social protection of the population by the state and the private sector. From the point of view of forms of state regulation of the sphere of social protection, system indicators usually include the state and dynamics of growth in the standard of living of the population, material goods, services and social guarantees for the poorly provided segments of the population. The main indicator among the above is the state of the consumer market, as one of the main factors in the development of the state. Priority areas of public administration with the use of various forms of social security have been identified. It should be emphasized that, despite the legislative conflicts that exist today in Ukraine, mandatory indexation of the cost of living is established, which is associated with inflation. Various scientists note that although the definition of the cost of living index has a well-established methodology, there are quite a lot of regional features in the structure of consumption. All this is due to restrictions that are included in the consumer basket of goods and different levels of socio-economic development of regions. The analysis of the establishment and periodic review of the minimum consumer budgets of the subsistence minimum and wages of the working population and the need to form state insurance funds for unforeseen circumstances is carried out. Considering in this context the levers of state management of social guarantees of the population, we drew attention to the crisis periods that are associated with the market transformation of the regional economy. In these conditions, there is a need to develop and implement new mechanisms and clusters in the system of socio-economic relations. The components of the mechanisms ofstate regulation ofsocial guarantees of the population are proposed. The deepening of market relations in the process of reforming the system of social protection of the population should be aimed at social well-being.


Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury

This chapter provides an informal rationalist model of state formation as an exchange between a central authority and a population. In the model, the central authority protects the population against external threats and the population disarms and pays taxes. The model specifies the conditions under which the exchange is self-enforcing, meaning that the parties prefer the exchange to alternative courses of action. These conditions—costly but winnable interstate war—are historically rare, and the cost of such wars can rise beyond the population’s willingness to sacrifice. At this point, the population prefers to avoid war rather than fight it and may prefer an alternative institution to the state if that institution can prevent war and reduce the level of extraction. Thus the modern centralized state is self-undermining rather than self-enforcing. A final section addresses alternative explanations for state formation.


1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Morgan

Patricia Morgan's paper describes what happens when the state intervenes in the social problem of wife-battering. Her analysis refers to the United States, but there are clear implications for other countries, including Britain. The author argues that the state, through its social problem apparatus, manages the image of the problem by a process of bureaucratization, professionalization and individualization. This serves to narrow the definition of the problem, and to depoliticize it by removing it from its class context and viewing it in terms of individual pathology rather than structure. Thus refuges were initially run by small feminist collectives which had a dual objective of providing a service and promoting among the women an understanding of their structural position in society. The need for funds forced the groups to turn to the state for financial aid. This was given, but at the cost to the refuges of losing their political aims. Many refuges became larger, much more service-orientated and more diversified in providing therapy for the batterers and dealing with other problems such as alcoholism and drug abuse. This transformed not only the refuges but also the image of the problem of wife-battering.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-395
Author(s):  
Richard Cebula ◽  
James E. Payne ◽  
Donnie Horner ◽  
Robert Boylan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of labor market freedom on state-level cost of living differentials in the USA using cross-sectional data for 2016 after allowing for the impacts of economic and quality of life factors. Design/methodology/approach The study uses two-stage least squares estimation controlling for factors contributing to cost of living differences across states. Findings The results reveal that an increase in labor market freedom reduces the overall cost of living. Research limitations/implications The study can be extended using panel data and alternative measures of labor market freedom. Practical implications In general, the finding that less intrusive government and greater labor freedom are associated with a reduced cost of living should not be surprising. This is because less government intrusion and greater labor freedom both inherently allow markets to be more efficient in the rationalization of and interplay with forces of supply and demand. Social implications The findings of this and future related studies could prove very useful to policy makers and entrepreneurs, as well as small business owners and public corporations of all sizes – particularly those considering either location in, relocation to, or expansion into other markets within the USA. Furthermore, the potential benefits of the National Right-to-Work Law currently under consideration in Congress could add cost of living reductions to the debate. Originality/value The authors extend the literature on cost of living differentials by investigating whether higher amounts of state-level labor market freedom act to reduce the states’ cost of living using the most recent annual data available (2016). That labor freedom has a systemic efficiency impact on the state-level cost of living is a significant finding. In our opinion, it is likely that labor market freedom is increasing the efficiency of labor market transactions in the production and distribution of goods and services, and acts to reduce the cost of living in states. In addition, unlike previous related studies, the authors investigate the impact of not only overall labor market freedom on the state-level cost of living, but also how the three sub-indices of labor market freedom, as identified and measured by Stansel et al. (2014, 2015), impact the cost of living state by state.


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