Past Event

Education Funding Webinar

January

30
January 30, 2025, 1:00 pm –
2:00 pm

More than most years in recent memory, 2025 is shaping up to feature many education funding debates in state capitols around the country. In January, CSG East, The Learning Policy Institute, and The Levin Center came together to host a non-partisan primer on how education funding works, broadly speaking, and best practices for understanding the existing system for funding schools in your states and communities.

This webinar was catered to state legislators and staff serving on budget and education committees, or who are new to public service and want to learn more about how states fund their education systems, what has changed in recent years, and what challenges lay ahead. The slides and recording can be found below.


Webinar Recording

Speakers

Image for:
Michael Griffith
Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst, Learning Policy Institute
Michael Griffith is a Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Learning Policy Institute. He is part of LPI’s Equitable Resources and Access team, where he focuses on school funding issues. Before joining the LPI team, Griffith was a school
...
finance expert, first with the Education Commission of the States and then as an independent contractor. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with policymakers in all 50 states to help them reshape and reform their school funding systems, always to improve student achievement and education equity. His research work has focused on the condition of state and district budgets, the adequacy and equity of state finance formulas, and promising practices in funding programs for high-need students.
Read More
Image for:
Benjamin Russell Eikey
Manager of State Training and Development, The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy
Ben Eikey is the manager of state training and development at the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy. His primary responsibilities include helping to build the State Oversight Academy by developing quality programming for the state legislative audience and the
...
public. He does this through state legislative oversight workshops for a national audience, short podcasts on a specific oversight topics called FAST Classes, and state-specific content including workshops at state capitols across the country. Ben helps equip legislators with the tools and best practices needed for bipartisan fact-finding and to empower legislators to see differences in perspective as an advantage when seeking facts together. Whether it is how to ask better questions in a hearing, how to leverage a department budget to secure a reporting requirement for a government program or service, or how to build an oversight plan when approaching a long-term investigation, Ben is always ready to assist legislators through the State Oversight Academy to help fulfill the legislature’s role as the “eyes and ears” of the people.
Read More
Image for:
Ian McKnight
State Training and Development Manager, The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy
Ian McKnight is a state training and development manager at the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy. He joined the Levin Center in July 2023 to work with the State Oversight Academy. A good government geek and legislative branch loyalist,
...
Ian helps state legislators, their staff, and the public understand the important role of bipartisan, fact-based oversight in our system of government. A native of West Michigan, Ian earned his B.A. in political science and American studies from Kalamazoo College. Before joining the Levin Center, he worked for a member of the Michigan House of Representatives and conducted software implementations and training for state legislatures across the country. Ian enjoys state capitol tours and train travel. He is a third-generation election worker and licensed tour guide in New York City, where he lives.
Read More
You might also be interested in