Rising federal debt threatens to reduce the growth of the economy, people's living standards, wages, and the standard of living. A policy solution needs to respect many constraints, most importantly, that it is seen as fair--both within generations and across generations. This article addresses concepts of fairness and their application to…

New York State (NYS) launched the Excelsior Scholarship in 2017. It is designed to make college tuition-free for students who attend publicly funded institutions and meet certain criteria. Is this scholarship a good investment for taxpayers of NYS? How long does it take taxpayers to recover their investment? This case analysis takes a perspective…

Mexico's implementation of mandatory teacher assessments in 2013 was part of a group of federal reforms aimed at enhancing the quality of state-run education. The reforms elicited strong opposition from key stakeholders. Building on the idea that policy capacities are the set of capabilities necessary to perform policy functions, we examine the…

In the United States, presidential election cycles tend to bring with them a spate of proposals for how the federal government can address adequacy and equity issues in K-16 education. The overall cost, complex web of independent funding mechanisms in play, and the lack of appetite for giving up more local (or state) control tends to temper those…

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has had concerns about student debt for decades. Her recent solution seeks to redistribute tax revenue from the richest Americans to enable students to refinance their postgraduation indebtedness; this would allow students to benefit from the low interest rates in today's financial markets. The Massachusetts…

This paper examines the debate in the U.S. Senate over the reasons why state governments have decreased funding for higher education. One side believes that federal mandates on states to pay for Medicaid have forced them to reduce spending on higher education. The other side believes that states unwisely reduced taxes, which decreased their…

The first semester Tax I student seems to be interested in the ethical issue of why citizens should report their income and only take legitimate tax deductions when it is unlikely that anyone will ever know. This paper addresses this issue from an interdisciplinary approach of accounting, philosophy, and political science. The accounting…

Many social scientists have recently commented on the high levels of income inequality in the United States. Indeed, the last time income inequality was as great as it is today was 1928, the year before the stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. In this article, the authors offer a historical look at income inequality and taxation in…

Compared with the former policies on early childhood education, the policies recently issued in mainland China clearly defined early childhood education as an integral part of education and social public welfare and stipulated the responsibilities of the government in its development, shifting the developmental orientation to promoting social…

The increasing focus of government institutions, such as the Tax Administration or Social Security, e-government has introduced a new paradigm that is the obligation of fulfilling obligations to these institutions through online channels. In the case of tax compliance by businesses, there is another requirement, only authorized persons, such as…

With the triumph of Tea Party candidates and other conservatives in 2010, many in the new Congress are pressing to get the federal government out of education. Eliminating or curtailing federal involvement in education would be a wrong-headed, simplistic move for several reasons: (1) It ignores the nation's history; (2) It would erode the state…

This study quantifies one part of the return to U.S. public investment in college education, namely, the fiscal benefits associated with greater college attainment. College graduates pay much more taxes than those not going to college. Government expenditures are also much less for college graduates than for those without a college education.…

Fill it out and turn it in: that's the message thousands of school districts send parents each year when they offer applications for the federal government's National School Lunch Program (NSLP). And each year, millions of parents comply. But new data suggest that the process for verifying eligibility for the program is fundamentally broken and…

Benefit-cost analysis was conducted to estimate the increase in earnings, increased tax revenues, value of less crime, and reductions in welfare costs attributable to nationwide implementation of rapid assessment, a promising intervention for raising student achievement in math and reading. Results suggest that social benefits would exceed total…

In the past, administrators have sometimes cited the lack of balance represented by the invitation of a college or university group or the danger that a group's invitation might violate section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code as reasons for canceling or modifying otherwise legitimate invitations. In "Academic Freedom and Outside…