This report sheds a new light on the history of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), its abuses of policy, and recommendations for a path forward. The report's evidence, and the long-term political dispositions of America's citizenry, supports the wholesale reform of ED, but not its elimination. The authors have structured their report in this…

Over the past decade and a half, state governments have assumed greater responsibility over demand-side management (DSM) operations. Whereas DSM programs formerly were initiated primarily by utilities or state public utility commissions, they are now becoming increasingly state-initiated and incentivized through funding mechanisms or…

Bills passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in spring 2001 to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reinforce and strengthen the education accountability provisions contained in the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994. This paper evaluates the accountability provisions in this…

Proceedings of a hearing concerning the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) administration of the Asbestos in School Program are presented in this report. Specifically, the hearing's purpose was to examine the EPA's progress in implementing the Asbestos Hazardous Emergency Response Act (AHERA), wherein the agency was responsible for…

The deregulation critique of the federal role in education asserts that education can be as productive with less federal intervention. This critique can be broken down into three groupings of separate criticisms. The first group denies the value or feasibility of federal goals. These criticisms insist either that federal goals are not worthwhile…

As the school-age population in the United States becomes increasingly culturally diverse and economically heterogeneous, public schools are confronted with issues of program specialization and social integration. Programs designed for students with special needs often take the form of discrete instructional structures. One consequence of targeted…

This publication reports on progress 1 year into the Clinton Administration's "Reinventing Government" initiative, a long-term effort at significantly revamping the federal government's operations. A preliminary chapter notes the culture change involved in the reinvention process. Individual chapters then report progress for each of the…

A number of current issues and initiatives in higher education are highlighted, including impending reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the need for advocacy of higher education in public policy arenas, a University of Florida program combining accountability and institutional autonomy, and institutional compliance with nonresident alien…