Most economists expect the current economic downturn to be one of the most severe since World War II. In fact, there is a very real danger that the changing circumstances of students, families, state and federal governments, and educational institutions could interact to significantly diminish educational opportunity in the United States. The most…

Presents an overview of the types of approaches currently used by state legislatures to ensure that rural residents receive access to adequate nursing care. (JOW)

"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) State of American Business: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Says U.S. Could Face a "Severe Worker Shortage" Unless…

Because of their concern regarding vocational education programs not being responsive to labor market conditions, the Congress has established the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC). The primary outcomes desired by Congress in creating NOICC were labor market supply and demand data for planning and occupational…

Keeping the existing information technology (IT) workforce viable and rapidly increasing the number of these workers presents a United States public policy workforce development (WD) challenge at all government levels. Public policy human capital investments have been undertaken to address the IT workforce supply and demand mismatch. States seem…

The project was designed to develop a data interface system which would (1) improve the quality of vocational data, (2) provide vocational data in a more timely manner, (3) provide meaningful analyses of data (particularly in the worker demand-supply area), and (4) provide the capability of interacting different data bases. Procedures were…