This issue deals with the future of an age-based public policy. Articles discuss the history of age-based public policy; the competing bases for benefits; population dynamics; Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare; employer policies; and local and state policies. Describes California's Linkages Program. (JOW)

Proposes reasons for the precipitous drop in the number of Black farmers since the 1950s. Today, most Black farmers have very small operations and are at an advanced age. A healthy rural nonfarm economy is essential to supplement farmers incomes. The Agriculture Credit Act of 1987 offers low-interest loans to Black farmers. (KS)

This directory of supportive and rehabilitative programs for people with deafness includes federal programs; state vocational rehabilitation offices; regional and local programs; national professional organizations and centers; chapters of the National Association of the Deaf; and professional committee members of two other organizations. (DB)

Stresses the need for increased federal, state, and local support for child immunizations resulting from the alarming increases in the incidence of rubella and other infectious diseases, and endorses the Standards for Pediatric Immunization Practices recently published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." (MDM)

Outlines the activities of the United States Department of Education and of Secretary Richard W. Riley to increase input from teachers to help revitalize education in America. Riley appointed Therese Knecht Dozier, a former teacher, to serve as a special advisor for teaching and as a liaison to and a voice for classroom teachers. (MDM)

The National Workplace Literacy Program provides grants to partnerships of business, labor, and educational organizations to develop model programs for teaching job-related basic skills. These projects are yielding information about promising practices, effective program elements, and barriers to implementation. (SK)

This history of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, established in 1917, reviews controversies over its constitutionality and control of education; criticism of its director, Charles Prosser; its contributions to vocational education; and reasons it was abolished in 1946. (SK)

Interviews with 15 participants in New Deal, a British training program for unemployed 18-24 year-olds, revealed overall skepticism about government training programs, distrust and disillusionment, little support for what the government identified as different about New Deal, and low expectations of long-term employment outcomes of the program.…

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development concentrates on three questions: how children learn to read English and other languages; which skill deficits and environmental factors impede reading development; and which instructional approaches work best with particular children. Research indicates that deficits in developing…

Three programs sponsored by the federal government--School-to-Work, One-Stop Career Centers, and America's Career Kit--make it easy to research career options, provide hands-on experiences, determine what kind of training is required and where to get it, submit a resume, and search for a job. (JOW)

Discusses how the direct-lending program, popular with colleges, may be doomed; a lawsuit and changing political fortunes pose threats to the system. (EV)

Describes the ways in which federal policy with regard to the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) must change and the massive restructuring ERIC will require in order to continue to meet the information needs of the education community. Suggests that ERIC's success has been largely due to activities beyond its contracted scope and…

Discussions with women in rural areas of India analyzed government-initiated development programs regarding availability of information, suitability to women's needs, and perception of problems. Most programs were top down with little input form women; self-help approaches problematized the "self" and did not consider the realities of…

Describes how a policy shift by the National Endowment for the Humanities has left regional grant recipients scrambling to make new plans. (EV)

Purpose: The goal of our study was to identify a representative sample of direct care aides to generate an accurate profile of the long-term-care workforce, with a special focus on home care workers. Design and Methods: Data were taken from the 5% Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 2000 Census. Results: Variable coding in the 2000 Census…