Education funding in the United States relies primarily on state and local resources, with just a tiny share of total revenues allotted by the federal government. Most analyses of the primary school finance metrics--equity, adequacy, effort, and sufficiency--raise serious questions about whether the existing system is living up to the ideal of…

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…

Using Michel Foucault's theories of biopolitics, about risk and security, I examine the welfare policies of the National Coalition Government in New Zealand (2008-2017). This government attempted to mitigate risk by projecting possible challenges and solutions to 'vulnerable populations'. Welfare was re-defined in monetarist economic terms, as…

Recent changes to the budgetary basis of schools in Russia has received a mixed response from parents, with a variety of views on whether the quality of education is being improved. Reductions in state support for preschool education raises questions about the ability of less affluent parents to prepare their children for first grade. Perhaps more…

President Obama's FY 2013 budget request includes another major spending increase for the Department of Education--2.5 percent more than last year--to nearly $70 billion. American taxpayers are calling for spending restraint in Washington, yet President Obama's proposals would exacerbate the existing bureaucratic maze of federal programs and…

Protecting and improving education should be a top priority for the BC government. Unfortunately, much of this last decade has seen conditions in BC schools worsen, rather than improve. Recent government decisions have just added to existing shortfalls in funding for schools. Unless the BC government reverses direction, projections are for…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) NCLB Anniversary Prompts Renewed Calls for Reauthorization: Growth Models, High School Reform Emerge as Points of…

The study presented in this article focuses on strategic planning in developing countries, drawing on the author's experiences in a dozen developing countries in Asia and Africa and focus groups in three of those countries: Afghanistan, Madagascar, and South Africa. It looks at the special challenges faced by planners in developing countries and…

This article describes Israel's latest conflict--plummeting government spending and strikes by faculty members and students which are threatening the stability of the country's universities. The founders of the modern state of Israel considered higher education to be so important that they established the country's first two universities long…

The United States Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, was called to testify before the House Budget Committee on March 13, 2001, on behalf of President Bush's plan to strengthen American elementary and secondary schools and close the achievement gap, and to discuss the President's 2002 budget for education. In this testimony, Secretary Paige first…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Educating Our Children": "Forbes" Taps Leaders in Business, Government, and Education for New…

Tightening State budgets, political ambitions and academic frustrations have marked the decline of public higher education in California. (Editor)

Saudi Arabia has been developing at breakneck speed since the end of World War II, when oil production transformed this country of Bedouins into one of the richest polities in the world. Its higher-education system, however, has not kept pace. The Ministry of Higher Education was not established until 1975, and its task was to educate a population…

Britain's 1988 Education Reform Act mandates increased centralization (through a national curriculum and testing program) and greater managerial decentralization and competition between schools. This article discusses the role of the central government Department of Education and Science in requiring local education authorities to implement local…

Recent changes in the structure and funding of Dutch universities due to retrenchment measures include a two-stage curriculum, a system of conditionally financed research, structural staffing changes, and redistribution of tasks. Far-reaching, often negative results are predicted. (MSE)