In June 2023, the Oklahoma Virtual Charter School Board approved the establishment of a charter school by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. This amounts to state funding of a religious school. Robert Kim discusses how this decision goes against Oklahoma's constitutional and legislative history, why allowing religious charters is not the…

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), federal education mandates will be decreasing, which means states will have more flexibility and authority than they've had in decades. State education agency (SEA) leaders are confronting great change and great opportunity as many agencies move away from a focus on compliance with federal regulations,…

Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions…

Describes the California legislature's education-related response to Proposition 13 and analyzes the likely long-range effects of that response--including its effect on revenue stability, expenditure equality, and school governance. (Author/IRT)

Plenty of state policies have been noteworthy in 2004, but one that had major impact went into effect in Illinois, where the governance of education was significantly restructured. S.B. 3000 (the Education Reform and Accountability Act of 2004) gives the governor greater influence over education through his or her control of the state board of…

Former Governor of North Carolina describes his efforts to improve the state's education system, to make it "First in America." Describes five educational goals related thereto: A smart start, excellent teaching, safe schools, high student performance, and business, community, and family support. Discusses implications of new federal…

Describes background for school-to-work effort in Massachusetts, the state's design and implementation of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) of 1994, the local impact of the state's STWOA grant, challenges to making school-to-work a top priority of state education reform strategies to improve student achievement, and state and local…

Personal interview with Walter Heller, Professor of economics at the University of Minnesota.

The Reagan administration in California used what some considered inflammatory rhetoric and seemed rigid, but in actual dealings it impressed many observers as flexible and willing to compromise. (Author/IRT)

The problem of student failure has been aggravated by the worsening financial condition of large U.S. cities. The author offers several partial solutions that might help schools combat the problem of dwindling resources. (Author/WD)

Reviews the impact on education of the first year's application of Massachusetts' Proposition 2-1/2, examines local factors linked to retrenchment policies, and considers the law's distributive impact among variously sized population centers. Analyzes projections of the law's second-year urban impact and its implications for educational equity in…

A restructuring of federal, state, and local relations is ceding considerably more control of education to the states. State mandates are now far more common than technical assistance and focus increasingly on the core of instructional policy, leading to a standardizing effect as local discretion declines. (DCS)