This study reveals the challenges confronting small, rural "frontier" schools in Montana and the practices that contribute to their sustainability. A Montana frontier school is defined as a school district with 200 or fewer students and its attendant community in a county with five or fewer people per square mile. The researcher…

In this article, the authors briefly examine the legal requirements for assessing students' eligibility for special education services. They then analyze the major changes regarding assessment for eligibility determination in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) passed in 2004 and the regulations implementing the…

Shortly after the first commercial radio broadcast in 1920, the medium's popularity exploded and the number of stations on the dial grew tremendously. By 1930, however, a mere 10 years after the first radio broadcast occurred, the industry was dominated by large, commercial stations who sold advertising time in a variety of forms and were operated…

As college costs have increased, and more federal and state aid has become merit-based, the doors of educational opportunity have closed for many students. Countless numbers are being denied access to college simply because they cannot afford it, undermining the fundamental policy object of the Higher Education Act of 1965. On Capitol Hill,…

A discussion of H.R. 1407, a bill to establish procedures to improve the allocation and assignment to the electromagnetic spectrum centered on the current policy of allocating portions of the spectrum through lotteries and auction. This report includes a copy of the bill, the text of testimony presented and materials submitted for the record, and…

This report accompanies H.R. 897, the Copyright Reform Act of 1993. The bill, intended to amend title 17, United States Code, to modify certain recordation and registration requirements, to establish copyright arbitration royalty panels to replace the Copyright Royalty Tribunal, and for other purposes, is favorably reported by the Committee on the…

These introductory remarks presented at the plenary session of the 1989 Telecommunications Policy Research Conference outline major areas of concern to state regulators, including alternatives to rate of return legislation; open network architecture; content issues; technical standards and compatibility; optimal pricing; cross subsidies and…

This examination of the open network architecture (ONA) concept and what can be expected as it is currently being implemented begins by defining the open architecture concept as the term is used in the communications and data processing fields. The marketplace benefits that flow from an open architecture are then summarized and the additional…

This paper discusses technical considerations surrounding open network architecture (ONA), specifically: (1) the technical characteristics of the Public Networks (Local Exchange Carriers LATA Networks); (2) the impact of ONA success on the Public Network and some concerns that will have to be addressed in the early implementation stages; and (3)…

This analysis of First Amendment rights for the electronic media recounts the stories of the broadcasting/cable industry must-carry compromise of 1986 and the failed codification of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. It is noted that these cases were peculiar because, in each instance, the most powerful media in the country willingly sought abridgment…

This paper opens with a brief discussion of what some have seen as an unusual threshold decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish a broadcast high definition television (HDTV) system. It then identifies the spectrum and standards tradeoffs which are posed by the establishment of a HDTV broadcast transmission standard,…

Reasons for delays in the U.S. Department of Education's issues of regulations related to three federal laws are reviewed in this briefing report. Eighty-three regulations issued under the Education of the Handicapped Act amendments of 1986 and 1988, Higher Education amendments of 1986 and 1987, and Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed a grant awarded to the National Partnership To Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse by the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The GAO interviewed current and former agency and Partnership officials and reviewed applicable laws, policies, regulations, and…

A theory of policy implementation, as opposed to policy results, would allow analysts to estimate how government programs would actually work. To help achieve such a theory, a general framework is presented along with testable propositions about the implementation of federal programs. Implementation is defined as including two components: the…

The rationale for broadcast regulation has undergone some changes over the years. At first, the rationale for such regulation was based on the concept that the airwaves are owned by the public and that the regulatory bodies act as agents for the public in controlling what is transmitted. In 1943, the United States Supreme Court built a rationale…