Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance

Dominic J. Brewer is Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. A labor economist specializing in the economics of education and education policy, Brewer has overseen major projects focusing on educational productivity and teacher issues in both K-12 and higher education. Before joining NYU in 2014, Brewer was a professor in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California for nine years and was named Clifford H. and Betty C. Allen professor in 2007. Prior to coming to USC, he was the vice president at the RAND Corporation where he directed RAND’s education policy research program for more than 5 years. He spearheaded RAND’s effort to assist in major K-12 reform in Qatar, the centerpiece of which is a system of charter-like government-funded schools. He is coauthor of a book detailing this effort, Education for a New Era: Design and Implementation of K-12 Education Reform in Qatar (2007). Brewer also co-led a state-sponsored evaluation of California’s charter schools and is one of the authors of Rhetoric Versus Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools (2001). His most recent publications include a coedited book, Economics of Education (2010), and one on urban education, Urban Education: A Model for Leadership and Policy (2011). His earlier work includes empirical analyses of the effects of teachers on student achievement, class size (including a review of the research literature published in Scientific American), and a book on competition in higher education, In Pursuit of Prestige: Strategy and Competition in U.S. Higher Education (2001). Brewer served as codirector of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a policy research collaboration of USC, University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. He is president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy for 2014–2015; past coeditor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), 2010-2012; and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), elected in 2011. Brewer holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford, a master’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and a PhD in labor economics from Cornell University.

Lawrence O. Picus is professor of education finance and policy at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. His current research interests focus on adequacy and equity in school finance as well as efficiency and productivity in the provision of educational programs for K-12 school children. Picus is past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) and is the president of the board of EdSource, a California-based education research organization. Picus is the coauthor of School Finance: A Policy Perspective (5th edition) with Allan R. Odden. He has authored, coauthored, or edited several other books including Where Does the Money Go? Resource Allocation in Elementary and Secondary Schools (1995), In Search of More Productive Schools: A Guide to Resource Allocation in Education (2001), Developing Community-Empowered Schools (2001) coauthored with Mary Ann Burke, and Principles of School Business Administration (1995) with R. Craig Wood, David Thompson, and Don I. Tharpe. He has also published numerous articles in professional journals. Picus studies how educational resources are allocated and used in schools across the United States. He has conducted studies of the impact of incentives on school district performance. Picus maintains close contact with the superintendents and chief business officers of school districts throughout California and the nation and is a member of a number of professional organizations dedicated to improving school district management. He is a former member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Association of School Business Officials International, and he has served as a consultant to the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, the National Center for Education Statistics, and WestEd. He served as the principal consultant for the design of school funding systems in Wyoming and Arkansas and has conducted equity, adequacy, and resource allocation studies in Arizona, Arkansas, Washington, Vermont, Oregon, South Carolina, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, New Jersey, Nebraska, Texas, North Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Maine. Picus holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Reed College and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago and the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He received his PhD in public policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.