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Contradictory evidence of the relationship between education funding and student achievement could reflect heterogeneous effects by revenue source or student characteristics. This study examines potential heterogeneous effects of a particular type of local revenue--bond funds for capital investments--on achievement by socioeconomic status. Comparing California school districts within a narrow window on either side of the cutoff of voter support required to pass a general obligation bond measure, I use dynamic regression discontinuity models to estimate effects of passing a bond on academic achievement among low- and high-socioeconomic-status (SES) students. Results consistently suggest that passing a bond increases achievement among low- but not high-SES students. However, these benefits for low-SES students are delayed and emerge six years after an election. Effects are larger in low-income districts and in small districts, where benefits of capital investments are experienced by a larger proportion of students.

In the context of tight state budgets, local education funding is increasingly important. This article examines the relationship between district-level demographic characteristics and voter support for tax increases to fund the local school district. Using district-level panel data on California school district elections and demographics from 1995 to 2014, we ask the following questions: (1) What is the relationship between demographics and support for school district tax measures? and (2) Does this relationship vary by the type of tax measure? Results suggest that voter support varies by district demographics. However, results differ for bond and property tax measures and suggest that the proportion of Black students increases the likelihood of passing a bond measure but reduces the likelihood of passing a property tax measure. This heterogeneity offers one potential explanation for contradictory evidence in the literature. Results have implications for racial inequality of educational resources between districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective hospital revenue cycle management practices have gained in importance in today's hospital business environment, in which many hospitals are confronted with stricter regulations and billing requirements, more thorough preauthorization and precertification, underpayments, and greater delays in payments. In this article, we provide a brief description of current hospital revenue cycle management practices. Next, we suggest measures of the financial benefits of revenue cycle management in terms of increases in the amount and speed of patient revenue collection. We consider whether there is a trade-off between the amount of patient revenue a hospital earns and the speed with which revenue is collected. Using financial statement data from California hospitals for 2004 to 2006, we test empirically the relationships among key financial measures of effective hospital revenue cycle management. We find that hospitals with higher speeds of revenue collection tend to record higher amounts of net patient revenue per adjusted discharge, lower contractual allowances, and lower bad debts. Charity care provision, on the other hand, tends to be higher among hospitals with higher speeds of revenue collection. We conclude that there is no evidence of a trade-off between the amount of patient revenue and the speed of revenue collection but that these financial benefits of effective hospital revenue cycle management often go hand in hand. We thus provide early indication that these outcomes are complementary, suggesting that effective hospital revenue cycle management achieves multiple positive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]