The enormous costs and burdens of outmoded facilities arrangements represent an immense opportunity for the nation's school systems.

Given the tight fiscal environment, it is critical that policymakers have a solid grasp on how to think about college costs and accountability so that they will be prepared to make important decisions about budget cuts and higher education policy in the years ahead.

The dramatic rise in college tuition costs is due to the ways in which they organize and allocate resources--not lavish university facilities and extra student services. The real levers for increasing efficiency include rethinking student-faculty ratios, eliminating under-enrolled programs, and trimming unnecessary administrative positions.

As school boards and superintendents have been forced to seek new efficiencies and ways to do better with less, many school leaders have found themselves particularly perplexed by the unique challenges of special education. But districts can do better to equip school leaders to better meet student needs while helping policymakers provide targeted support for cost-effective practices.

Vance Fried explains what decision makers should know to rein in the cost of collage

Performance guarantees in education represent one mechanism for improving upon, expanding, and replicating the successes of providers to raise student achievement.

A detailed examination of the history of college attrition rates reveals how far we have already come in our higher education aspirations, and provides some understanding of how we might tackle the challenge of now raising graduation rates.

The tension at the heart of pension politics is the incentive to satisfy today's claimants in the here-and-now at the expense of long-term concerns.