Discusses the institutional and organizational environment of schools of choice in the public sector, focusing on the role of the principal. The principal's leadership role is that of middle manager, entrepreneur responsible for attracting and holding parents and students, and symbol manager, responsible for developing an organizational…

Connecticut Governor Lowell P. Weicker recently assumed state responsibility for ending racial and economic segregation in suburban and inner-city schools through cooperative, comprehensive five-year planning efforts. Most substantial gains for minority students occur when desegregation plans are metropolitan or countywide. Efforts to combine…

Analyzes the private school choice debate through a review of the political and judicial history of efforts to provide private schools and their patrons with forms of public aid. It is predicted that a federal tax credit or tuition plan is not likely to succeed in Congress. (SLD)

A literature-based model of the legislative politics of policy innovation is examined in light of Minnesota's experiences with the school choice issue. A revised model, reflecting case-study findings, is presented. The leadership area is identified as the arena where lawmakers can exert leverage on restructuring public education. (SLD)

Missing most from the clamor for school reform is a coherent vision of what reform should encompass. School-based management, computer-assisted teaching, and higher teacher salaries won't necessarily transform children raised outside of society's mainstream into successful adults. Above all, school reform ought to serve the needs of children,…

In Michigan, highly politicized school-finance reforms and the charter-school and school-choice movements present enormous challenges for school business officials. There is greater demand for administrator accountability and credibility, an open environment, effective communication skills, efficient use of data, long-term vision,…

School choice is a promising education reform in the U.S., transferring power over basic education decisions from bureaucrats to parents and allowing poor children a chance to receive excellent education. This paper describes three categories of choice, examines the Constitution and Supreme Court, explains how to design a legally sound school…

Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study 1988 indicate that, controlling the availability of opportunities for school choice, African Americans and Hispanics show a greater propensity to take advantage of those opportunities than do whites and Asian Americans. Parents with lower levels of education were also more likely to use the…

Discusses a recent Wisconsin "school choice" initiative, under which parents may choose public, private, nonsectarian, or religious schools for their children and have state funding directed to the appropriate institutions. Argues that school choice programs empower parents to provide the best education available to their children. (MAB)

Examines the controversy surrounding school choice policymaking and discusses emerging means-based proposals designed to give low-income children a chance to attend high-quality private or parochial schools. Legal issues regarding the full choice movement in education are addressed as well as the political forces arrayed against it. (GR)

Examines issues concerning school vouchers as a way to improve the nation's public schools. Focuses on: (1) inequality in teaching and schooling; (2) public education and social mobility; (3) the Cleveland, Ohio school voucher program; (4) how school vouchers undermine public schools; and (5) the political debate. Asserts that voucher programs are…

Discusses trend of "takeovers" of low-performing big-city school districts by skilled outsiders and argues that success depends on how schools are overseen rather than who oversees them. Describes optimum district environment for success and argues structure and accountability ultimately more important than person in charge. (KSB)

New school creation is key to success of choice. For the last two decades, the struggle over school choice has focused on freeing up parents to choose. It continues to this day, with growing success in the forms of public and private voucher programs, charter school laws in 40 states and the District of Columbia, and state and federal laws that…

In this article, the author attempts to enter the charter school dialogue by looking at the new charter school movement through an anti-essentialist social movement and new social movement lens. In the anti-Western new social movement conception there are no set patterns to how movements manifest themselves, or how they were intended to manifest…

Recently, reflections on the progress since the 1954 decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" and the challenges confronting those who believed in "Brown" occupy much of the author's daily thinking. Many of the current and recent past education problems and issues are connected generally and specifically to issues of school desegregation: (1)…