The mission of the association for education finance & policy (aefp) is to promote understanding of means by which resources are generated, distributed and used to enhance human learning. Aefp is a non-profit professional and academic association representing a variety of disciplines, perspectives and points of view.

More than 600 conference participants conduct research in p-20 education finance and policy, presented at the annual conference. These researchers may be policymakers at local, state and federal agencies, in teacher associations, at universities, think tanks and non-profits working as educators, economists, political scientists, public administrators and higher education faculty in those fields. Topic areas are educator labor markets & effectiveness, school effectiveness, and school finance. The relatively small size of the conference allows for and actively encourages meaningful and collegian engagement for all its attendees, regardless of career paths, seniority, etc. The conference is aefp's primary mode of engagement, including a plenary to provide another opportunity for members to interact and visit outside of paper sessions. aefp publishes through mit press a quarterly journal, education finance & policy, for its members and to university libraries, founded in 2005-06. Aefp has had a long-standing external support grant to aid expenses as the journal develops. 2013 was the first year of an impact factor. aefp provides travel grants, outstanding dissertation awards and research grants to graduate students. In 2016, with funding from two foundations, aefp also awarded prizes for outstanding research papers. These will not be continuing.