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The purpose of this paper is to assess the channels of education financing as they exist currently in Iraq. It argues that the current model of financing is highly centralized and in order to encourage a school-based management and better school outcomes, there needs to be decentralization of financing. The paper considers block grants as a mechanism for decentralization and explores other country experiences in this area.

The paper opts for both an analytical and exploratory study of the financing channels in the education sector in Iraq based on both primary field-based surveys and secondary sources of information such as World Bank and UN documents. For understanding other country experience of school block grant provision, the paper reviews literature and attempts to find learnings for Iraq.

The paper provides a detailed insight into the service delivery modal and channels of education financing in Iraq across multiple tiers. It argues that the centralized model of education financing is one of the factors that contribute to weak school governance and school performance indicators. It explores the idea of school block grants as a model of decentralized financing and a review of other country experiences on provision of school block grants gives some interesting insights into what might work for Iraq.

Economic wars, sanctions and conflict have severely affected the country and as a consequence there are very limited data and information available and this has impacted the study. Furthermore, though the country has been liberated from ISIS, the peace is fragile and any research findings have to be seen in this background.

The paper does not stop at identifying the problem, i.e. centralization of financing but attempts to explore and provide a way to get around this in the form of provision of school block grants.

There are very few studies that explore the service delivery model and financing channels in the education sector in Iraq and therefore this paper should add value to any discussion on post-conflict reconstruction.

This research evaluates the value-for-money (VFM) obtained from public-private partnership (PPP) schools in Scotland, based on headteachers questionnaires, local authority interviews and Scottish School Estate Statistics. The period covered is 2000-2012, when 395 new schools were commissioned. The PPPs were better in building condition and maintenance standards and conventionally-financed schools were better in terms of teacher access and improvement in staff morale. There was transfer of knowledge whereby the high standards of the PPPs then became the new standards for the conventionally-financed schools. Concerns about PPP VFM relates to the high cost of unitary charges and contract inflexibilities. A higher percentage of headteachers of conventionally-financed schools (63.64%) considered their new schools resulted in good VFM compared to PPP schools (42.86%).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of school governing bodies (SGBs) members’ role in financial management in no-fee schools so as to understand their compliance with policy frameworks when managing school finances. No-fee schools are schools in which the learners cannot be levied fees because of the poor socio-economic background of their parents, and are located in Quintiles 1-3 according to National Norms and Standards for School Funding Policy.

A qualitative research design/approach within the interpretive paradigm was adopted for the study. A sample of 22 participants from six selected no-fee schools was purposefully selected to participate in the study. The participants were principals, SGB chairpersons, SGB treasurers and finance officers. Data were collected through interviews and document analyses and were qualitatively analysed through coding and categorisation.

The findings reveal that the perceptions, experience and understanding of SGB members on their financial management roles differ. They lacked the proper knowledge to manage their funds effectively. This lack of knowledge is mainly because of the members’ literacy level and limited training.

This study offers a novel empirical and theoretical perspective on finance of no-fee schools and SGBs. This research subsequently recommends that rigorous training of chairpersons and treasurers should be done by department officials located in the finance section. Further, training should be conducted in a language that would be understood by the intended recipients.

During the 1990s many states used budget surpluses to refinance public education and provide property tax relief. This paper uses a case study of Kansas to assess the sustainability of state-initiated property tax cuts. It finds that the cuts are not fully sustainable over time because of court and federal mandates that require additional spending on education, economic fluctuations that reduce the ability of state budgets to maintain a given share of education spending, and demands for local control to allow school districts to spend more or less than state-mandated levels. The paper also argues that the property tax is essential to economic efficiency and local control.

As interest in the “politics of education” continue to mount in the United States it becomes important to try to explicate the fundamental political ideology which continues to shape current developments in school finance in that country. In this article it is argued that there is an identifiable “democratic theory of school finance” and that the roots of this political theory can be found in the works of such “classical” authors as Aristotle, Thucydides, Thomas Jefferson, Alex de Tocqueville, Caleb Mills, and others. A body of current professional educational literature and some court opinions are then summarized and illustrations are provided to show that the basic political values of the “classical” authors are still very much present in the newer professional literature and in the court opinions. Finally a postscript is provided to bring the reader even closer to additional school finance literature in the United States. Students of the politics of education might be interested to learn that this was a bipartisan effort. Professors Hickrod and Hubbard are normally associated with the Democratic Party in the United States, while Professor Laymon customarily finds himself on the Republican side of the aisle. The article thus provides some evidence that there can be agreement on principles of democracy and constitutional government that transcends political party affiliation.

While there has been increasing interest in the impact of courtmandated education finance reform on school district efficiency, research on the subject is scant. Taking advantage of New Jersey Supreme Court cases that have altered the way in which state school aid is distributed, this paper examines the effect of changes in the education finance system on school district efficiency. Building on existing literature on public sector efficiency, a longitudinal data analysis based on two-stage DEA models reveals that courtmandated increases in state aid to a limited number of poor school districts decreased the districts' efficiency. Though these results should be interpreted with some caution, in particular, the limitation of DEA as an efficiency measure, they imply that, as with any policy, policy makers and courts should be aware of how policy changes affect local government behavior and that it is necessary to evaluate policy outcome taking into account both resources and performance.

COVID-19 has disrupted the economic development of both advanced and emerging markets. In addition to the stimulus packages to adjust the economic shock from COVID-19, regulators around the world are searching for innovative mechanisms to rebuild the economy. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of SRI Sukuk to serve as an Islamic social finance solution for development projects to mitigate the adverse economic effects of COVID-19.

This study uses a mixed-method research framework. The authors use a systematic literature review following the recommendations of Bowen (2009) to identify critical challenges financing PPP projects using SRI Sukuk. In the next phase, the authors interview participants involved in an SRI Sukuk financed PPP project to get more significant insights on the challenges identified through the literature review process.

The authors identify the need for greater transparency for SRI financed PPP projects. Also, organisational and legislative challenges are limiting the attractiveness of SRI Sukuk as a financing mechanisms for post-COVID development projects.

SRI Sukuk is an emerging financing concept, and the use of such an Islamic financial instrument in financing development projects can serve as a viable alternative for policymakers in a post-COVID economic environment.

The successful completion of the development projects integrating the concept of Social Maslahah through SRI Sukuk in Malaysia could encourage other emerging economies to use such innovative Islamic financial instrument for economic development in post-COVID environment.

This paper is unique, as it provides evidence on the potential of SRI Sukuk to finance large scale public-private partnership projects.

Differences in the cost of living and the general attractiveness of communities lead to significant, regional differences in the prices school districts must pay for their most important resource – people. According to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, labor costs differ by more than 50% from the lowest-cost district to the highest-cost district within California, Florida, New York, Texas, and West Virginia. Furthermore, all states but Hawaii and Rhode Island face at least a 7.7% internal differential in labor cost. Most states fail to account for such cost differences in their school finance formulas, leading to inequitable differences in school district purchasing power. This chapter compares and contrasts the various strategies states use to make geographic cost adjustments to their school funding formula, describes the implications of geographic adjustment for interstate and intrastate measures of school finance equity (and corresponding litigation), and discusses the impact that such adjustments could have on the distribution of federal aid for economically disadvantaged students under Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Since the 1970s, the North Carolina Legislature has authorized its counties to levy four local option sales taxes (LOST). Proceeds from two of them are partially restricted for school capital needs; two other LOST are used to augment counties' general revenues that may also affect school capital funding. Experiences from other states have raised concerns that the adoption of LOST may increase inequality in school finance, but the empirical results have been mixed. Using a data set of one hundred North Carolina county school districts from 2004 to 2006, this study examines how public school facilities are funded, and investigates whether the adoption of LOST aggravates or alleviates inequality in public school capital revenues in the state.