As public education secretary of New Mexico, Hanna Skandera dug in fast, set an ambitious agenda, and broke a lot of china. Her ability to inspire and subsequently ignore controversy is clear: from the outset, she was deemed so contentious that the state senate refused to confirm her for four years, during which she performed her duties as…

Just 18 minutes before the midnight signing deadline on May 15, 2010, Minnesota state legislators breathed a sigh of relief. Their bipartisan pension reform legislation, which passed both chambers by large margins and aimed to help shore up a potentially failing pension system, had just escaped a veto threat. Under pressure from his Republican…

Despite the scholarly attention on the effects of merit aid on college access and choice, particularly on the significant effect that states' varied eligibility criteria play, no studies have examined the policy process through which merit aid criteria are determined. This is surprising given the recent attention to state-level policy dynamics and…

Like most States, New Mexico's legislature grants not only basic foundation money for public schools but also a small percentage of additional discretionary funds. While the foundation money is almost always dispersed in light of a rigid formula, the discretionary funds present the opportunity for political bargaining. While hardly of as obvious…

The pattern of Chicano political representation in the territorial and state legislatures of California, Colorado, and New Mexico was examined. (NQ)