This paper examines the debate in the U.S. Senate over the reasons why state governments have decreased funding for higher education. One side believes that federal mandates on states to pay for Medicaid have forced them to reduce spending on higher education. The other side believes that states unwisely reduced taxes, which decreased their…

Caught between extraordinary public expectations and relatively modest constitutional authority, U.S. presidents historically have fashioned all sorts of mechanisms--executive orders, proclamations, memoranda--by which to move their objectives forward. William Howell asserts that under President Barack Obama's administration, presidential…

Background: In Ohio, levy campaigns are a burdensome task for district administrators and stakeholders alike. To date, there is little research on the districts' role in crafting school budget referenda campaigns. Purpose: This study asked three research questions: How did the macropolitical contexts shape stakeholders' decision making in terms of…

The frenetic legislative season now finished or wrapping up in many states has brought big changes to education policy, some forged through bipartisan compromise, others only after hyperpartisan battles. From teacher issues to vouchers, the 2011 state legislative season saw widespread action on education. Republican leaders who swept into office…

Since the 1970s, American governors have become increasingly active in education politics. Where they once told state education chiefs to "make me the best education governor ever," they now demand control of state boards of education, push for state control of school funding, and urge statewide standards for teacher evaluation. This…

Findings of a case study that examined how nonincremental policy changes occurred in Ohio education are presented in this paper. Specifically, the paper applies Mazzoni's two arena models of policy innovation to understand the 1989 passage of S.B. 140, or the Omnibus Education Reform Act. In the first model, policy innovations occur when the…

In this article, the author is asking that teacher educators respond to two papers that recommend political activity. Becoming politically active is one way of reacting to the situation that currently faces teacher educators, but political activity is not for everyone. It is time-consuming, exhausting, and at times depressing. It is also…