Eric Houck, associate professor in the Policy, Leadership and School Improvement and Educational Leadership programs, has been elected vice president of the National Education Finance Academy.
With the election, Houck is in line to serve as vice president during the upcoming year, as president-elect in 2022-23, then as president in 2023-24.
The NEFA is a group of scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in the study of P-16 education finance. It incorporates policy, legal, and administrative perspectives as it interrogates the generation, distribution, and use of educational funds. Houck formerly served the NEFA on its Board of Trustees and as communications chair, and will chair the Membership Committee in his new role.
“We are thrilled that Eric will be working with NEFA to put on our annual conference and engage our multiple constituencies around issues of equitable funding for education,” said Rob Knoeppel, dean of the School of Education at the College of William & Mary and immediate past president of NEFA. “His knowledge of finance and leadership will be invaluable as NEFA moves into its second decade.”
Houck, who also teaches in the School of Education’s new Human Organizational Leadership and Development program, is an authority on school finance, conducting research on the inequities created by educational finance systems.
His recent research focuses on how state-level school funding policies interact with school and school system demographics, particularly via teacher salary structures and student assignment policies. His work has examined the resource allocation implications of the resegregation of public schools.
Houck is a co-author of “Modern Education Finance & Policy,” one of the leading school finance textbooks on the market. His research appears in journals such as the Journal of Education Finance, the Peabody Journal of Education, Education and Urban Society, and Leadership and Policy in Schools.
A former public school teacher and central office administrator, Houck uses political, educational and administrative frameworks to understand how context and politics drive seemingly irrational policy decisions.
He earned his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in 2006, a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999 and a bachelor’s degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill in 1992. He attended Carolina in the University’s inaugural class of N.C. Teaching Fellows, a program established to recruit top students into the teaching profession.