BIO, publications, Patents, models & networks

Jay F. May, CPA, is CEO of EduAnalytics, LLC a consulting and professional services practice specializing in finance and technology. Jay has 25 years of intensive K-12 education finance experience; including 9 years of hands-on line leadership experience. He also has 19 years of prior experience in public accounting, banking, technology and process reengineering. Jay believes that truth is found at the intersection round-about of facts, context, knowledge, and research. Today’s buzz phrase is, “speaking truth to power.” Jay focuses on finding a situation’s truth; but, thinks the purpose of truth is to inform the 3 “P”s: the Powerful, the Powerless, and the Public. Once knowledge of truth is pervasive, practical local solutions emerge. For more information, go to the Contact web page and write or call. 

In addition to his financial analyses for purposes of litigation support, Mr. May has contributed substantially to the following publications.  You can download these publications instantly at the bottom of this web page.

Pension & OPEB Unfunded Liabilities, Fiscal Impact on Maryland and Prince George’s County Public Schools, by Larry D. Maloney and Jay F. May, for The Maryland Public Policy Institute, release pending. Nationally, unfunded pension and Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) are a silent problem, potentially forming the beginning of our nation’s next fiscal crisis.  This report shows the magnitude of the problem for Prince George’s County Public Schools, and shares real world implications if unfunded liabilities are not more aggressively mitigated. Unfunded pension and OPEB liabilities are already crowding out funding for K-12 education. This study suggests that solutions should not be left to chance, convenient investment rate assumptions, and investment gambles guided by self-interested parties.

Charter School Funding: Inequity Persists, by Batdorff, M., Maloney, L, May, J., Doyle, D., and Hassel, B., for Ball State University, 2010. This second study in the Charter School Funding series analyzes public schooling revenues by source for 24 states plus Washington, D.C. and compares funding for traditional schools vs. charter schools. Of these two domains the inequity favoring traditional schools persists since the first study in the series in 2005 for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands, by Batdorff, M. Maloney, L, May, J., Speakman, S., Wolf, P., and Cheng, A., for University of Arkansas, 2014. This third study in the Charter School Funding series analyzes public schooling revenues by source for 30 states plus Washington, D.C. and compares funding for traditional schools vs. charter schools. This third study found that the gap in funding favoring traditional schools over charter schools had expanded.

Buckets of Water into the Ocean: Non-public revenue in public charter and traditional public schools, by Batdorff, M., Cheng, A., Maloney, L., May, J., and Wolf, P., for School Choice Demonstration Project, University of Arkansas, 2015. This study examines individual categories of non-public revenues received by traditional public schools vs. public charter schools. The bottom line: On a per pupil basis these two domains receive about the same amount of non-public funding; and that amount of funding is just a bucket of funding in an ocean of total funding.

The Productivity of Public Charter Schools, by Wolf, P., Cheng, A., Batdorff, M., Maloney, L., May, J., & Speakman, S., for School Choice Demonstration Project, University of Arkansas, 2014. In this study, the University of Arkansas team developed the best, first return-on-investment (ROI) study in the nation for 20 states and Washington, D.C. On average, public charter schools are delivering more bang for the buck than traditional public schools. 

Charter School Funding: Inequity in the City, by Wolf, P., Maloney, L., May, J., & DeAngelis, C., for School Choice Demonstration Project, University of Arkansas, 2017. The primary research questions in this comparative study of 14 metropolitan areas are: 1) Do public charter schools receive equitable funding compared to traditional public schools; and 2) What explains any funding gaps? Houston had the greatest balance in funding.  Shelby County, TN charters receive more funding than traditional schools due to generous philanthropic support. Camden, NJ has the largest gap (45%) in funding favoring traditional public schools. Special education does not explain the differences.

Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks? The Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities, by DeAngelis, C., Wolf, P., Maloney, L., May, J., for Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, 2018.  In this study the University of Arkansas team applied its ground breaking return-on-investment (ROI) methodology to 8 cities: Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, New York City, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C.  

In$ite – The Finance Analysis Model for Education -- Mr. May and Sheree T. Speakman are co-inventors of In$ite™ -- The Finance Analysis Model For Education®, 1999. For details, visit the patent office at www.USPTO.gov and search for Patent #5,991,741. Mr. May and Ms. Speakman have since updated and replaced the functionality of In$ite using more current electronic tools and processes that are more responsive to user needs – see the CIE Model below.

The QC-BI Model – The Quality-Controlled Business Intelligence Model (QC-BI Model) is a cross between a self-service BI application and a BI Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application.  Our delivery provides the technical expertise of a SaaS solution needed to avoid critical errors while also providing the low cost of a self-service BI solution.  The QC-BI Model is the simplest of all business intelligence solutions for non-technical end-users.  End-users need to know only one thing -- how to use a dropdown box.  Education decision-makers and stakeholders need business intelligence support.  One must know how money is being spent by function, program and demographic to properly interpret the significance of revenues received from various sources, and vice versa. To what organizational levels are funds distributed and expended? How does funding cascade down to classrooms and classroom teachers? The cascade aspect of the QC-BI Model was based on the pioneering work done by Dr. Bruce Cooper, Fordham University.  The QC-BI Model provides easy access to quality internal and external data for analysis of facts and context. 

Without context, a single excellent expenditure report is just an island of potentially good, but insufficient information.  The QC-BI Model aggregates data from disparate sources and integrates data for purposes of providing context along with facts for decision-support.  Complex systems require more complex analysis of networked financial, demographic, organizational, locational, and student performance data. The QC-BI Model is designed to accommodate all of those types of data, cascading, and any other pertinent data sets that add context for the purpose of understanding truth. The QC-BI Model is the next evolutionary step beyond In$ite -- The Finance Analysis Model for Education.  

A brokerage network – Mr. May and Ms. Speakman have researched and applied the concept of brokerage networks to a client’s request for assistance to develop a new service benefiting schools. The new service extends across a few industries with various actors. The benefit of applying a brokerage network is to raise the plateau of more effective process at lower cost.  This proposed solution is currently under consideration.