Building on the premise that closing achievement gaps is an economic imperative both to regain international educational supremacy and to maintain global economic competitiveness, I ask whether it is possible to rewrite the social contract so that education is a fundamental right--a statutory guarantee--that is both uniform across states and…

A meeting of education finance scholars discussed finance issues relevant to rural schools and communities. This paper summarizes major themes that emerged during the meeting. Notions of efficiency and economies of scale have contributed to widespread consolidation of rural schools and school districts. The value of community is not easily…

Noting that education is viewed as the route to success in American society, the paper argues that education has not lived up to this promise. Emphasis on conformity and regimentation, fostering of competition and exclusion behaviors, classism, racism, and a microfocal perspecitive of social problems serve as barriers to full realization of the…

This paper argues for two major changes in the selection of students and in the way that services are delivered under Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981. The first change would make available Chapter 1 funds only to schools with very high proportions of children whose families live in poverty. The second change…

Discusses why the achievement gap between poor and middle-class children persists and what can be done to close it, explaining that the latest version of Title I does not provide necessary levels of resources to compensate for inequality in educational spending. Examines the importance of preschool educational experiences, suggesting that this…

This paper discusses the need to build instructional capacity in high poverty, low performing schools using Title I funding and integrate the corresponding federal policy requirements with state teacher education policies to allow states and districts to develop locally designed partnerships with alternative certification agencies. It recommends…

The relationship between school system financial and demographic data and student achievement on the science subsection of the Tennessee statewide standardized test was studied to determine if systems that served large numbers of low income students had been as successful as more affluent systems in improving student achievement. System-level data…

Associations between school district poverty and achievement and Chapter 1 programs are studied. The allocation formula in the legislation states that funding is to be distributed in direct proportion to poverty and regional cost. Dependent variables include Chapter 1 funding, the number of district participants in compensatory education…

Compatibility of three basic goals of public education in the United States is examined. The goals are: (1) equal educational opportunity, interpreted as giving the same education to all students regardless of factors such as race and parental wealth; (2) general competence, defined as attainment of basic academic skills by the great preponderance…

The history of San Felipe School District (Texas), 1894-1971, depicts a situation in which Mexican Americans had control of local schools. Established in the Mexican "barrio" of the racially divided border town of Del Rio, San Felipe resisted annexation to the Anglo school district and became an independent school district in 1929.…

One possible way of educating residents of developing countries is through a "university for the poor" based on shared village Internet posts and village technology learning centers. Western colleges and universities could donate their courses, and multinational organizations could subsidize the program's administration. Academics could…

Based on the realization that the rapid worldwide growth of educational systems over the last two decades has not produced the expected eradication of social inequality, an international seminar was held for educational policy-makers, planners from developing countries, research workers in the area, and representatives of aid agencies of 33…

Current policy discourses on "equity" in VET tend to gloss over the nature of the socioeconomic disadvantage that underlies questions of the participation and achievement of the so-called "target equity groups." While indexes of socioeconomic disadvantage are widely applied in education, their application to VET participation…