In January 2013, the governor proposed a new funding model for California school districts called the Local Control Funding Formula. As the Legislature debates the proposed new funding model for schools, which is expected to start in the 2013-14 fiscal year, the author thought it would be a good time for a history lesson in California school…

The Private higher education sector is growing fast in many settings, including India, and there are variations at the national level. Privatization of higher education in India has been the result of changes in the economic policy towards liberalization and privatization by the Government of India. Till 1980, higher education sector was…

This article places developments in Polish public higher education (HE) in the broader context of the literature on HE governance and, in particular, marketization. The Polish case stands out due to the parallel existence of prestigious large universities with long histories of scientific advancement and the largest number of private HE…

Scholarly and institutional research on early childhood education is not a new phenomenon, but what is perhaps limited is extant literature that particularly focuses on revisiting current practices and their "dialogue" with the ever-changing environment that prevails especially in an African setting. The practices of providers of early…

The argument that cultural and other forms of diversity enhance the educational experience of all students is generally associated with post-1960 efforts to expand the presence of disadvantaged groups on the campuses of America's universities and colleges. Yet, in the case of UC Berkeley, arguments on the merits of cultural diversity have much…

In this essay, Paul Vallas--education reform expert and key advisor to the government of Haiti in developing its national education plan--discusses his plan for Haiti. The paper explores the successes and challenges of education reform in Haiti, before and after the earthquake that devastated the nation in 2010. The essay describes the…

This paper deals with technical education growth, policies in pre and post independent India. The world is moving forward rapidly and positively, into an era where societies and economies are incrementally based on knowledge. The importance of nations in the 21st Century shall be judged not by their economic strength alone, but also by their power…

Neoliberal ideology has made an impact on environmental education (EE) policies and practices in Brazil. The EE in Family Agriculture Program, of national scope and administered by the Ministry of the Environment, seeks to promote sustainable development in rural areas, specifically through strategies focused on adult education and non-formal…

What was the impact of government grants on the emerging national elementary school systems of the nineteenth century? This article deals with this question through a study of the introduction of matching government grants in Sweden during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The analysis shows that, although the government grants increased…

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…

This paper explores the complex relationship between social justice and education in the public and private spheres. The politics of education is often presented as a battle between left and right, the state and the market. In this representation, the public and the private spheres are neatly aligned on either side of the line of battle, and…

After receiving his PhD in 1970, the author has spent almost 30 years conducting research on the economics of higher education, chairing faculty budget committees at Cornell, serving as a Cornell vice president and then as a trustee of both Cornell and SUNY, and being associated with innumerable national commissions and higher education…

Background/Context: Endowments of institutions of higher education in the United States have attracted widespread attention in recent decades due to their meteoric rise in value and their precipitous decline during the recent recession. But there has been little research on the beginnings of the significant interest in and importance of…

This paper establishes and explains the important role of the Conservative Government of 1959-1964 in supporting the raising of the school leaving age in Britain from the age of 15 to 16. This was a significant and high-profile national issue that generated much educational, social and political debate around conflicting priorities during this…

The purpose of the chapter is to give an overview of special education in Iceland, historically and with reference to modern use of terms, research, policy, legal trends and funding. Recent data is provided on demographic developments amongst children in Iceland and detailed account is given of practices in schools, including collaboration with…