This booklet contains a brief analysis of four "real life" alternatives (Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, and New York) for State systems of funding schools, along with a concise conceptual framework for approaching the study of school finance reform. Because the booklet was prepared as a practical guide for State legislators, the authors avoid highly…

The format of this monograph follows essentially the arrangement of the day-long conference on Serrano vs. Priest: a major paper presentation, followed by a panel of three respondents, and subsequent general discussion involving the audience and conference participants. The editors have attempted to provide both the formal and the extemporaneous…

This document is a study of the Massachusetts Department of Education, with recommendations on how the department may better serve the needs of public school students in the Commonwealth. The study examines the department's current internal operations and its performance of external functions, recommends how these operations and functions might be…

This paper discusses alternative methods for financing education including sales and compensating taxes, mineral leasing, and land income. The author discusses the problem of local control under a full State funding system. He warns that merely allocating money to school districts on an equal basis will fail to accomplish equal education unless…

Intended to assist the producer in meeting the housing regulations of Federal, state, and local governments for migratory workers and thereby to attract better labor through adequate housing, this agricultural handbook contains discussions of the migrant-labor situation; regulations and standards; general housing considerations (i.e., length of…

The study guide presents background information, questions and answers, primary source material, and guidelines designed to provide secondary schools with basic sources for observing how the New York state system evolved from the colonial experience and the precedents established by the first state constitution. The documents in the publication…

To examine the hypothesis that occupational licensure is primarily a restrictive device to protect those licensed from competition, analysis focused on the licensure of non-professional occupations in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, covering 36 licenses issued by the three states for 12 occupations (e.g. electricians, barbers,…

This booklet is intended to help familiarize Washington school board members with their legal powers and limitations. In nontechnical language, it summarizes relevant Washington laws, gives the legal reference for each, and quotes illustrative court decisions and attorney general opinions. The table of contents can be used as a key to look up…

This booklet is designed to help school board members understand New Jersey's public employee relations law and to serve as a useful guide to the operations of the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission. Individual chapters focus in turn on the Public Employment Relations Commission, unfair labor practices, the scope of collective…

This report discusses a variety of legal, fiscal, historical, and theoretical issues related to alternative school finance mechanisms, with emphasis on their possible application in Alabama. The authors do not attempt to suggest specific approaches to school finance reform, but rather to provide information for use in public decision-making. In…

The course of collective bargaining for public employees (including teachers) in the state of Alabama is examined in this study. Although Alabama currently has no state legislation providing for bargaining for teachers, the trend nationally, as well as in the state, seems to be toward establishment of bargaining units for public employees. The…

Discusses the development of Pennsylvania's Information Technology Education for the Commonwealth (ITEC) program, which was mandated by legislation in 1984. Describes some of the activities of the 14 Regional Computer Resource Centers (RCRCs) which were created by ITEC to provide computer education to Pennsylvania teachers. (TW)

The educational funding system in Massachusetts has become less equitable than before, since the passage of Proposition Two and a Half. A decision-making process driven by zero-sum economics, rather than educational needs, is particularly harmful to urban youth; failure to educate every young American threatens the nation's social and economic…

Scott Thomson, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), is interviewed about his expectations for education during the 1980s. He expresses an optimistic attitude and feels that education will continue to be one of the major priorities in the nation through the 1990s. (MD)

A restructuring of federal, state, and local relations is ceding considerably more control of education to the states. State mandates are now far more common than technical assistance and focus increasingly on the core of instructional policy, leading to a standardizing effect as local discretion declines. (DCS)