Despite high costs, bringing fiber optics telecommunications to every doorstep would be as revolutionary as the rise of printing technology. School leaders concerned with costs, equity, and instructional effectiveness should understand the roles of two key players: the telephone industry and state governments. Sidebars advise about planning…

President Bush's proposed budget would boost total education spending next year from $39.9 billion to $44.5 billion-a far cry from the $95 billion proposed by a coalition of education groups, including the National School Boards Association. NSBA also opposes Bush's emphasis on block grants, school sanctions, and vouchers. (MLH)

Alberta's charter-school legislation responds to certain needs of both liberal and republican ideologies. Alberta's experiment indicates that parents are not very dissatisfied with their local schools. Few minority children are attracted, and charter performance has not been stellar. Schools are chosen for their value systems. (Contains 31…

Because of a congruity of developments in the knowledge base concerning tests, external political factors, and legal factors, responsible use of employment tests could be on the verge of widespread acceptability. However, the possibility also exists that tests will once again become the scapegoat for "bad news." This review of the legal…

Most research efforts concerning minority politics have focused on descriptive representation, which emphasizes (1) counting the minority or female persons in office, and (2) explaining representative levels on the basis of political, social and economic determinants. Descriptive representation, however, is passive and focuses on "being something"…

This paper focuses on the economic, social, and political considerations of contracting. The increasing tendency of government to contract services is attributed to higher financial stress facing local governments, a growing political belief that the extent of government should be reduced, and the perception that the private sector is a more…

The paper outlines the educational objectives of a course offered at the 1982 meeting of the American Academy on Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. The course addresses policy changes and trends in publically financed services to developmentally disabled persons. Topics covered in the outline are a continuum of care; historical…

This paper isolates four research perspectives that have guided analyses of state legislatures and education policy in the past, and it presents research judgments that it believes will help the Law and Government Program of the National Institute of Education identify promising research directions in the future. While it acknowledges that few…

This analysis of Federal impacts on the urban residential sector focuses on: (1) the influence of Federal programs and policies on intermetropolitan population movements (migration from the North to the sunbelt); and (2) program and policy influences on the process of suburbanization (the flight of the affluent from central cities). Considered are…

This book is intended to help readers understand the forces, processes, and conditions that interact in shaping the direction of public education and to acquaint them with several conceptual models that might assist in explaining educational policy-making. The author attempts to develop a conceptual framework that can be used to visually explain…

This document is the report of hearings before the Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare of the United States Senate, held in June, July, and August, 1970. The hearings relate to the Emergency School Aid Act of 1970, specifically, Senate bills 3883 and 4167. Bill 3883 sought to provide financial assistance to…

The purpose of this study is to describe the structures of and decision-making processes within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and government agencies concerned with education at all geopolitical levels, and to describe the dynamics of the interrelationships between the CPSU and the government. The study is based on data collected…

While state curricular mandates may bring compliance, the notion that they can change what happens between teachers and students in the classroom is inherently wrong. States must set broad goals, establish broad outcomes, hold districts accountable through periodic reviews, and also devote ample resources and energies to those ends. (MSE)

The first of two articles examines the process of obtaining federal aid in Australia by comparing a successful effort by school libraries and a failure to obtain public library funding. The second explores the potentially negative effects of defending professional rights and status to the extent of alienating funding agencies. (CLB)

Reports on the impact on malnutrition of Mexico's Sistema de Alementacion Mexicana (SAM) program, which tried to make the country self-sufficient in basic foods. Concludes that the food problem in Mexico is not so much one of production as it is a problem of distribution and consumption. (PS)