In this brief, authors Michael Ettlinger, Jordan Hensley, and Julia Vieira analyze how much the governments of different countries spend, and on what, to illuminate the range of fiscal policy options available and provide a basis for determining which approaches work best. They report that the United States ranks twenty-fourth in government…

In November 2010, the British Government, modifying one of the proposals in the Browne Report published in October, decided to allow English universities to charge tuition fees of up to 9,000 British Pounds, while removing almost all the public funding previously provided in the form of a block grant. This had consequences the Government should…

At the heart of progressivism is the belief that government--not big government, or small government, but effective government--has a critical role to play in ensuring the well being of its citizens. Public spending serves an important function in pursuing economic growth objectives while ensuring that gains are widely distributed to promote…

The persistence of the Great Recession provides us with the opportunity to engage in a long overdue conversation about public investments in America's children. Less than ten percent of the Fiscal Year 2010 federal budget of $3.603 trillion is allocated to children and youth. This percentage is likely to decline in the next decade if current laws…

Following September 11, 2001, the number of international students coming to the United States dropped for the first time in over 30 years. While enrollments have rebounded, the U.S. image has declined in the Muslim world and elsewhere. To improve global attitudes toward America, the U.S. government funds higher education for international…

Since vocational education and training (VET) have a very special focus on workforce development and economic growth, economic trends and political context are important. One cause of the perceived problem of insufficient growth in the national economy is VET provision quality and/or quantity. Relationship among governmental and government-related…

To explore options to establish Federal Individual Training Accounts (ITAs), a study reviewed Pennsylvania's Individual Learning Accounts, Cedar Company's Individual Learning Accounts, ITAs under the Workforce Investment Act, and the United Kingdom's Individual Learning Accounts. ITAs were defined as a base amount of resources--dollars or…

The levy-grant system that operated under Britain's 1964 Industrial Training Act was the most effective incentive mechanism for increasing the volume and improving the quality of training. Strengths of the act's Industrial Training Boards (ITBs) were employer-funded training, collection of data on training in companies to guide planning, and…