It's no surprise that libraries in "LJ"'s annual budget survey reported an overall downward trend, with the expected decline in total budgets some 2.6% and the change in materials budgets 3.5%. Per capita funding is nudging down after years of steady if sometimes modest increases, with a projected decline of 1.6% in FY10. After all, the country…

Not so long ago, alongside the splendid edifice of full-time university education, there was a thriving array of university degree-level programmes, offered part-time in local settings, which was world-leading in its availability and in its ambitions. One could access it as part of a career-change need, a professional accreditation or for the…

The "Daily Telegraph" recently carried an attack on the Union Learning Fund (ULF) as part of its ongoing criticism of unions following the industrial action by cabin crew at British Airways. This included a quote from Conservative MP Francis Maude suggesting that the fund was a form of "money laundering." The article, which was…

All corners of the media are scrutinising David Cameron's "Big Society", from every conceivable angle. While the concept has caught the public's imagination, the greater challenge of fleshing out what the Big Society will actually offer and require of communities is unfinished business. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations…

The concept of actively leading constituents, internal and external, is second nature to many university administrators in most areas, except one: fundraising. For many university presidents and academic deans, it's a part of the job that is not well defined or well understood. They know there is an expectation that private funds will flow into…

Budgetary capacity that would allow for the public funding of the provision of universal access to primary education is lacking in many sub-Saharan economies. National revenues significantly lag behind the overall economic productivity measure of GDP. Analysis of data derived from UNESCO and UNDP for 2004 shows that governments in the region spend…

Charter schools--public schools of choice that are operated autonomously, outside the direct control of local school districts--have become more prevalent over the past two decades. There is no consensus about whether, on average, charter schools are doing better or worse than conventional public schools at promoting the achievement of their…

The face of the American landscape is overwhelmingly metropolitan, making metro areas important spaces for philanthropy to explicitly consider when crafting postsecondary funding strategies. This is the case for two primary reasons. First, metropolitan areas are drivers of economic activity and innovation. Second, four out of every five…

This year Indiana joined over a dozen other states in adopting Friedman's principles by passing what many believe to be the most comprehensive school choice program in the country. With the enactment of three key bills (HEA 1001, HEA 1003, and HEA 1004), Indiana parents may now take advantage of a school expenditure tax deduction, school…

In the winter of 2009, with more than 1.4 million job losses in the first two months of the year, the federal government passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law as a way to quickly inject liquidity into a stalling economy and maintain critical services that would allow individuals and communities to survive through the…

This article describes the thinking behind and the implementation of the Design Your Own Park (DYOP) Competition, a collaborative project of a university, a city, and a fund-raising organization to empower neighborhoods and restore outdoor play citywide in Binghamton, New York. The city makes vacant lots and other neglected spaces available for…

The Irish-African Partnership for Research Capacity Building (IAP) is a research consortium involving all of the nine universities on the island of Ireland together with four African universities, with the overall aim of building research capacity for poverty reduction. The project was supported by a three-year grant from Irish Aid. This article…

Billionaire businessman Eli Broad, one of the country's most active philanthropists, founded the Broad Superintendents Academy in 2002 with an extraordinarily optimistic goal: Find leaders from both inside and outside education, train them, and have them occupying the superintendencies in a third of the 75 largest school districts--in just two…

What significance did donations, bequests, tuition fees and fund-raising events have for early care and education programmes during the nineteenth and early twentieth century? Through an examination of 24 Swedish infant schools, day nurseries and free kindergartens, this article verifies that donations and bequests were essential for the economy…

Purpose/Objectives: The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required all school districts participating in federally funded child nutrition programs to adopt and implement a school wellness policy by the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year. One drawback of this federal mandate was that it did not provide funding to assist with…