This article presents an interview with Wilma B. Liebman, the new chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In this interview, Liebman talks about labor law, academics, and reversing ossification.

In a global knowledge economy, filling in the bubbles on a standardized test isn't going to prepare children to succeed in life. This is the time to shed the old conflicts and come together. In this article, the author suggests a new path forward--toward a 21st-century education system, a serious and comprehensive reform plan to transform U.S.…

One of the author's enduring concerns about the concept of academic freedom is with semantics. It has seemed to him that one of the biggest difficulties with discussions of academic freedom (as with many conversations about "value-laden" terms such as "democracy," "equity," and "justice") is that people begin from different positions and with…

Describes the likely direction of new collective bargaining relationships and the implications for the roles of negotiators and third parties who will be involved with these changes. (Author/IRT)

In a previous article, Gordon A. Gregory and Mark Heinen criticized John M. Caraway's article describing recent successful experiences with the use of mediation in place of arbitration for failing to note the perception of the grievants. A reexamination of the data show that 80 percent of the grievants were satisfied with the mediation procedure.…

Argues that exclusive representation reduces public employees' freedom of choice, increases the welfare of union leaders at the expense of union members, limits employment opportunities of "outsiders," entrenches the monopoly provision of public services, and generates conflict and instability in labor relations. (Author/MLF)

In the 1970s, public employee unions consciously modeled their objectives, strategies, and behavior on private sector unions. With refinements, the private sector model is working well in the public sector. (Author/IRT)

Comments on J. Pisapia's "The Open Bargaining Model" and asks that before structural changes are made in the bargaining process that Pisapia's list of trilateral practices be investigated and analyzed carefully as to the implications and impacts of each practice over time. (Author/MLF)

Explores the ways in which public referendums might be used in public employee labor relations. Two judgments are reached: whether the device could actually be implemented in New York City, and whether its use would be in the interest of sound public policy. (Author/IRT)

Profiles Robert P. Bates, director of field services for the American Federation of Teachers. (IRT)

As a manager, and later as a government executive, Cyrus S. Ching pointed the way to a cooperative system of labor relations by showing that differences are more easily resolved when reason prevails. (Author)

Reviews some dominant trends--diversification of the levels, forms, and functions of workers' participation; the role of collective bargaining; the revival of workers' councils; structural changes; expansion of scope; means of establishing workers' participation--and discusses problems such as the role of unions and the risks of complexity and…

The proper role of collective bargaining in the public sector is to help establish the benefits that employees will accrue as a result of their employment. Any extension beyond that should be seriously questioned. Available from Kansas Association of School Boards, 5401 S.W. Seventh Avenue, Topeka, Kansas; SC $1.00. (Author/IRT)

Introduces the special section of this issue on the Public Employee Relations Act (Act 195) in Pennsylvania. (IRT)