The Distribution of Federal Vocational Education Funds Study. Final Report, September 27, 1980-September 15, 1981.

The purpose of this study was to design a distributive system that complies with the priorities of the federal Vocational Education Act; meets the vocational education needs of students, local education agenices (LEAs), and the state (California); and is both equitable and practical to implement. Data were gathered by literature reviews, state-level administrator interviews, LEA interviews and survey, and a national survey. This Executive Summary highlights the Study Report, which was presented in two volumes. It reviews the procedures used in California and eight other states to distribute federal funds for vocational education; discusses the procedures currently used to select new programs for VEA support; analyzes the degree to which these procedures are meeting the needs of LEAs in the two systems; discusses and analyzes high cost technical programs; and presents the recommended system for distributing federal vocational education funds between the State Department of Education and the California Community Colleges. It also presents a discussion of the major issues involved in developing a distribution system, which include (1) the definition and calculation of a comparable measure of program size; (2) the identification and calculation of comparable measures of program cost; (3) the development of an appropriate formula for distributing the funds between the two agencies; (4) the availability of reliable data on disadvantaged and handicapped enrollments in vocational education programs; and (5) the determination of relative financial ability and the advisability of its inclusion in the formula. (KC)