Economics of State and Local Government - Essay Example

?Finance and Accounting Economics of and Local Government The No Child Left Behind act requires that s develop and implement content that is academically challenging in reading and math to ensure that proficiency is reached by grade 12 and children in grades 3-8 tested each year. These are provisions that require that there be no federal controlling of the curriculum. Federal funding is to be provided to States and States aren’t required to cover the bill in the event that the federal government is unable to pay. Test results will be made available in annual report cards showing that they are well on their way to being 100% proficient for all groups of students. If the schools do not make acceptable grades then corrective action or school improvement will be implemented. Data will also be sorted according to each demographic, (race, sex, poverty, ethnicity, disability and English proficiency) to better recognize groups that aren’t meeting standards. Each State will also be measured against each other. Charter school programs, rural education programs, education provision for homeless children and youth, programs and funding designed to provide children attending unsafe school opportunity to attend a safe school, and safe and drug free school policy guidance are each provisions of the No Child Left Behind. Numerous States have fought the act, calling it unfunded. The claim and reasoning behind this is that there is no reinforcement in the act should the federal government not provide the funding. States are specifically written out of the act and not required to fund the act in any circumstance. Therefore the act is thought of as an unfunded act. 2. The reason that guaranteed tax based formulas have failed is because there are differences in the actual dollar cost of providing educational services in schools, districts, and student populations. Some groups of students will have much higher needs than others and small school districts might not see the same benefits as that of a larger one on a comparative scale. These differences are accounted for by associating funding with certain types of students and schools, as mentioned prior and setting up separate programs that bring in dollars for certain student populations, districts and schools. Weighting and adjustment programs usually assign a specific numerical value to portions of the student population by certain attributes and qualities. This helps to illustrate where financial resources are needed and can be directed. Students who have special needs may be weighted 1.5, while students who have no special needs may be weighted as 1.0 (Hightower, Mitani, Swanson). This helps in deciding how much funding is actually needed when taken all factors into consideration. Weighing programs such as this are a better way of allocating funds and reducing inequity in education funding. 3. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Family’s (TANF) program was created to help families reach self-sufficiency by providing individual states with grants to reach certain goals. One being to assist families so that children can remain in the home with families, two, promoting job preparation, work and marriage, three, preventing pregnancy in unmarried individuals, and encouraging the formation and maintenance of two parent family’s (About…). Federal rules regarding TANF requires work participation hours standards that states must meet to continue to be eligible for TANF grants. The all-family requirement states that half of all families that contain an adult or head of household must participate in work related activities 30 hours per week if children are over six and 20 hours for children under six. The separate two parent family standard is that 90% of families must be participating in these work activities each week. Child support enforcement activities must be cooperated with and parents who do not have child support ordered are required to get an order (Temporary…). Assistance can only be received for a total of five years in an individual’s life time. Families must include a child or a pregnant woman and children must be current with vaccinations and those of school age must attend school. Assets must be valued at 2000.00 or less and vehicle values must be under 8500.00. Activities included in work activities can be job searching, employment, community service, vocational or on the job training, work experience or caring for a child in lieu of community service. The amount of assistance will depend on family size and family size is limited with no additional funds provided once that size is reached. TANF federal aid is distributed through the use of block grants and maintenance of effort funding (MOE). Block grants, supplemental grants, healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood grants are used to fund State TANF programs. MOE grants require that States maintain efforts at 75-80% pre-TANF, providing State funds equal to this. States may differ in how they implement TANF. Income eligibility and maximum benefits, work requirements and time limits on receiving aid and sanctions are each ways or instances in which States may differ. An example is the time limitation for receiving benefits, in 2008 only 29 States followed the five year time maximum and, five States had no limit and 17 States chose to use shorter limits (TANF…). About 50% of States use the 30 hour per week work activities and some States actually require more hours. 4) Federal Medicaid is funded through the use of open-ended matching grants of which 366 billion a year is spent. Matching varies by State income from 50-74%. There are approximately 59 million recipients of the Medicaid program. To receive Medicaid federal guidelines state that children under 6 can have family incomes of 133% the poverty level, children 6-19 may be at 100% poverty level and adult must be at 38% poverty level. Disabled adults can receive Medicaid at 74% poverty level. Under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 these levels are expected to change with changes being implemented in stages. Policies are included for those who do not meet the income standards to qualify for Medicaid in other ways and other insurance affordability programs. This Act has the intended goal of providing health insurance for every American. Through the children’s insurance program children may be at 200% of the poverty level. Adult poverty level requirements will also be extended to 133% poverty level (Compilation…). Some provisions of this Act have taken place with the remainder staggered over the next several years. The growth average of Medicaid is 11% each year. Half of all cases are children who take up 16% of the total costs. Adults represent 22% of the caseload and 11% of the total spent, 18% are disabled individuals who represent 45% of all costs and the remaining population, the elderly, represent 10% of the case load and 28% of Medicaid spending. States manage these rising costs with the use of additional co-pays, reducing eligibility, cutting provider rates and applying for waivers through the Center for Medicaid and Medicare. 5. Though economists have argued that taxes have no bearing on business development States continue to offer tax incentives for business’ locating in their State. A meta-study was done by Waysylenko on taxation and economic development. Dependent variables include income, employment, investment, plant expansions, relocations and births. The study showed the results showed the tax effects on business locations. In conclusion it was shown that most studies focus on location, employment and investment decisions. Also the studies which use micro data focus mostly on the effects of business taxes on manufacturing locate while aggregate studies focus on the effect of total taxes on manufacturing employment (Waysylenko). Total employment using three studies showed business tax elasticity at -.16, 0. This was further broken down into categories. In conclusion the studies showed that taxes have a small statistically significant effect on location behavior (Waysylenko) with the suggested estimate of elasticity at -0.2. A claw back provision is a provision to allow the recovery or return of money’s paid that were paid in error or should not have been paid. References "About TANF Program." Administration for Children and Families. 7 Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. . "Compilation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." House.Gov. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. . "TANF - State Differences." NETWORK. 2012. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. . "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families." Department of Children and Families. Oct. 2006. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. . Hightower, A., Mitani, H., & Swanson, C. (n.d.). State Policies that pay. State Policies That Pay. Retrieved December 19, 2011, from http://www.edweek.org/media/eperc_finance_0410.pdf Waysylenko, Michael. "Taxation and Economic Development:The State of the Economic Literature." BostonFed. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. . Wright, P., & Wright, P. (n.d.). No Child Left Behind Law, Regulations, Guidance Publications & Policy Letters - Wrightslaw. Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy. Retrieved December 19, 2011, from http://www.wrightslaw.com/nclb/law.htm Read More