By: Leslie Orrantia
With similar disparities in student outcomes across secondary and postsecondary sectors, states are increasingly turning to K-12 to ask what lessons may inform higher education finance for more equitable distribution of resources. This question is central to a new SSTAR Lab literature review titled “Adequacy and Equity in Education Finance: How Can K-12 Contexts Inform Higher Education?” The short answer: as in K-12, higher education institutional funding matters for student outcomes. As summarized in this blog, the report explores similarities and differences across three key K-12 and higher education contexts—legal, economic, and measurement—and outlines implications for higher education efforts to identify and address disparities.
The Legal Context
The legal frameworks of secondary and postsecondary education differ, resulting in different approaches to and outcomes from litigation. K-12 litigation successes have resulted in the redistribution of public funding in service to all institutions and students, whereas higher education efforts have commonly resulted in changes to individual institutions. Regardless of these differences across sectors, litigation continues to hold promise for addressing persistent disparities.
The Economic Context
Efforts to equalize funding in higher education are more complicated than those in K-12 as their revenue structures are quite distinct. K-12 schools are primarily funded by state and federal governments. Higher education institutions, in contrast, feature a more complex cost-sharing funding model that includes government, philanthropy, tuition, and auxiliary services. Consequently, postsecondary funding assessment and equalization efforts need to account for the full scope of their revenue—public and private.
The Measurement Context
Finally, the measurement of “adequacy” and “equity” in the secondary and postsecondary sectors also differs. K-12 has long wrestled with these important issues and researchers have developed helpful measures for assessment—some of which have been applied to higher education contexts. However, the higher education sector is comprised of institutions with varied missions, activities, and financial models. Without consistency, or consensus for measuring resources or specifying goals for student outcomes, assessing adequacy and equity in funding is significantly more challenging.
The report authors—Amberly Dziesinski, research analyst for SSTAR Lab, and Nicholas Hillman, SSTAR Lab director and professor of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis—sought to review and summarize K-12 literature to support state policymakers and practitioners’ interest in higher education finance reform. As states consider different funding models and policy considerations, the SSTAR Lab anticipates research will play a helpful role in identifying what works best for addressing funding disparities.
Read the full report and the SSTAR Lab’s related work on equity funding here.
This project is part of a larger effort to promote adequacy and equity in higher education finance. This work was made possible with support from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Lumina Foundation.