Institutional responses to the fiscal crisis in American higher education, as well as state and federal initiatives, are pushing universities toward four interrelated structural reforms: institutional differentiation; shift from basic to applied research and development; increased interdisciplinarity; and a shift from department-based research to…

Gives an overview of the history of historically black colleges and universities, current enrollment and funding trends, and the issues, challenges, and struggles that continue to threaten their existence. Despite substantial enrollment increases since the mid-1980s, a number of concerns remain, including large institutional financial deficits,…

The long economic boom enabled school districts nationwide to fund expensive reforms and hefty pay raises. Now, however, they are finding it nearly impossible to cut costs and balance their budgets. The specific path to financial distress is unique in each case. Any number of factors, from excessively generous concessions at the bargaining table…

Interest in distance education, particularly online education, is increasing in public school districts throughout the United States. In an effort to aid those who are involved in the planning and administration of K-12 distance education programs in Georgia, the authors sought to gather and report baseline data on the current utilization of…

In this essay, the author calls attention to a little-studied but critical aspect of school system reform: the nontransparent and sometimes illogical ways school districts allocate funds and personnel, especially teachers. Drawing on a series of studies produced by his Center for Reinventing Public Education, the author asserts that mayors who…

Faculty (n=484) and administrators (n=189) at five public comprehensive universities that had experienced annual budget reductions of at least 10 percent were surveyed concerning their job satisfaction and reactions to the reduction process. Three institutions were identified as having used unplanned approaches, and two used planned approaches.…

Effective spring 1993, California community colleges increased enrollment fees for students with baccalaureate degrees from $6 per unit to $50 per unit, with some exemptions for economically or physically disadvantaged students. Overall credit enrollments for California's community colleges declined an estimated 8.8% from fall 1992 to spring 1993.…

Sweeping changes in the economy, the makeup of the labor force, and family structure have altered both the family and the workplace, and have changed the way society must respond to family needs. The supply of child care is inadequate to meet families' child care needs, and many parents cannot afford to pay the full fees for child care. Public…

This report contains the first-year research and findings of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Puerto Rican Young Men and Poverty Project. This project is a 2-year community-based effort to understand and begin to explain the relationship between the experiences of Puerto Rican men aged 16 to 24 years and the persistent poverty of Puerto…

This paper examines strategies for state and local leaders to finance supports and services for young children and their families in the wake of welfare reform. It focuses on strategies for revenue reform and for creating public/private partnerships to provide decision makers with current and relevant information on a variety of effective tools…

This brief report summarizes a longer document with the same title. It reviews the need to better manage higher education expenses in light of budget cuts and reductions in appropriations and other public services. It is noted that tuition, although increasing, has been increasing at a slower rate since 1981. Also, faculty salaries have not…

This book examines 1980s educational reforms and their consequences for the 1990s, focusing on the Australian Labor Party government's policy response to conditions of economic scarcity. The first section addresses the broader economic, social, political, and ideological context of educational reform under Australian Labor governments, compared to…

During a 6-month odyssey over America's back roads, 80 schools in 25 small school districts in 21 states were visited, in hopes of finding effective schools where smallness facilitated participation by all. District size ranged from 450 to 2,000 students. Data collection included observation of classes and meetings; group interviews of classes;…

This document examines changes in Latin American economies and educational systems during the 1980s and the responses of the Latin American democracies. Following a description of changes in Latin American public expenditures in the 1980s and subsequent adjustments in education expenditures, the dynamics of the adjustment in Costa Rica and…

This book presents papers from a national symposium conducted by the Forum for College Financing, offering a perspective on how higher education institutions will finance their operations in the future and the challenges that lay ahead. A paper by Richard Anderson and Joe Meyerson, "A Changing National Environment," introduces the other papers in…