In the interest of the public good: Texas pre-kindergarten compulsory law

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-360
Author(s):  
Omar S López
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Texas School Districts ◽  
Full Day

In Texas, public-funded pre-kindergarten is important because it provides the most vulnerable children with the opportunity to develop school readiness, so they can learn core competencies in kindergarten relevant to academic readiness for first grade. The Texas Legislature was back in session in spring 2019 and, not surprisingly, a bill was filed requiring all Texas school districts to offer free all-day preschool programs for students meeting certain criteria—in the interest of the public good. In this colloquium, the author seeks to bring attention to the problem of pre-kindergarten attendance—an issue that the Legislature needs to address before funding the expansion of pre-kindergarten from half-day to full-day programs. In so doing, the author’s intention is to inspire discourse among the early childhood global community of educators, researchers, and policymakers regarding pre-kindergarten compulsory policy and practice, and thereby inform current thinking and guide further study on this important issue.

scholarly journals Urban-Serving Research Universities: Institutions for the Public Good

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Desiree D. Zerquera
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Research University ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Public

<p>This manuscript seeks to situate access to higher education as part of the public good of universities, and connect that specifically to the mission of institutions that are charged with carrying this out more than others. One such institution—the Urban-Serving Research University (USRUs)—has a distinct mission that emphasizes not just location within the urban context, but being composed of the city they inhabit. A key and significant part of the USRU mission is to provide access to urban and historically marginalized students in their regions, populations typically underserved by higher education. Further, this manuscript highlights the tensions inherent in this ascribed mission and the threats posed within the higher education environment. Centered within a U.S. context, comparisons to international urban contexts will be drawn to situate these institutions within the global perspective as well and present takeaways that may inform the work of the global community in thinking how to better educate their diverse urban populations. Considerations for research, policy, and practice are posed to challenge the global community to consider ways to better uphold and preserve the significant role of USRUs in providing opportunity.</p>

scholarly journals Faith-Based Institutions, Institutional Mission, and the Public Good

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Rose Daniels ◽  
Jacqueline N Gustafson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Institutional Mission ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Faith Based Institutions ◽  
Faculty And Administrators

Rooted in historical foundations and demonstrated by continued government financial support, one purpose of higher education is to contribute to the “public good,” or support and further social causes and human flourishing.  This notion has received renewed attention in both the literature as well as in professional practice.  Given the variety of institutional structures (e.g., public, private, religiously affiliated, nonprofit, and proprietary), the influence of institutional mission varies.  Yet, aside from institutional leadership, an institution’s mission is potentially most significant in influencing public good.   Faith-based higher education institutions often have missions that are inextricably interconnected with service and community engagement.  With these missions, faith-based colleges and universities are distinctively positioned to address social issues, engage in service to the local and global community, and to involve students, faculty, and administrators in this shared purpose. These institutions are uniquely accountable and have the greatest potential in this outcome precisely because of their faith commitment that both informs and motivates their policy and practice. In this essay, the role of faith-based institutions of higher education in promoting public good is explored.  In addition, an analysis of both opportunities to enhance public good, as well as obstacles and challenges faced are provided.

Positional Commitments and the Public Good: Perceptions of a Defecting Group Leader

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Sibicky ◽  
Cortney B. Richardson ◽  
Anna M. Gruntz ◽  
Timothy J. Binegar ◽  
David A. Schroeder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Group Leader ◽  
The Public

Finding Fault with the Nexus Pipeline? Agency Capture and the Public Good

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Kear
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Environmental Impact Statement ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fracturing Process ◽  
Natural Gas Industry ◽  
Regulatory Commission

Natural gas is an increasingly vital U.S. energy source that is presently being tapped and transported across state and international boundaries. Controversy engulfs natural gas, from the hydraulic fracturing process used to liberate it from massive, gas-laden Appalachian shale deposits, to the permitting and construction of new interstate pipelines bringing it to markets. This case explores the controversy flowing from the proposed 256-mile-long interstate Nexus pipeline transecting northern Ohio, southeastern Michigan and terminating at the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. As the lead agency regulating and permitting interstate pipelines, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also tasked with mitigating environmental risks through the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act's Environmental Impact Statement process. Pipeline opponents assert that a captured federal agency ignores public and scientific input, inadequately addresses public health and safety risks, preempts local control, and wields eminent domain powers at the expense of landowners, cities, and everyone in the pipeline path. Proponents counter that pipelines are the safest means of transporting domestically abundant, cleaner burning, affordable gas to markets that will boost local and regional economies and serve the public good. Debates over what constitutes the public good are only one set in a long list of contentious issues including pipeline safety, proposed routes, property rights, public voice, and questions over the scientific and democratic validity of the Environmental Impact Statement process. The Nexus pipeline provides a sobering example that simple energy policy solutions and compromise are elusive—effectively fueling greater conflict as the natural gas industry booms.

Rhetorical Competitions as a Means of Developing Communicative and Linguistic Competences in 10th–11th Grade School Students of a Polycultural School

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
S. A. Akhmadeeva ◽  
M. J. Gadzhieva
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Public ◽  
Written Examination ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Oral Presentations ◽  
Universal Themes ◽  
11Th Grade ◽  
Speech Situation

This study was aimed at identifying new effective forms that could facilitate the achievement of a practice-oriented result, i.e. students’ ability to communicate in any speech situation, as well as their readiness for various kinds of oral and written examination tests, including the public defence of projects in the 10th grade and writing December essays in the 11th grade. The article considers rhetorical competitions as a means of developing communicative and linguistic competencies among 10th–11th grade students of a polycultural school. The article provides recommendations on organizing such competitions, criteria for evaluating presentations, examples of oral presentations. A textual analysis of the folklore material of Dagestanian and Russian fairy tales and proverbs allowed the authors to conclude that an inexhaustible set of universal themes that have become the subject of reflection in different nations, can teach students to respect other cultures and extend their knowledge of the world and other people. The experience of a rhetorical competition in high school on the basis of fairy tales and proverbs of different nations is expected to help students form such core competencies as critical thinking, creativity, communication and cooperation (ability to work in a team).

Sentientist Democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public

Chapter 3 asks what kinds of institutions are needed to protect the worth and rights of sentient creatures. The chapter’s ultimate claim is that they are best protected by democratic institutions: that is, institutions which are participative, deliberative, and representative, and underpinned by a set of entrenched rights. Crucially, the chapter further argues that those institutions should be comprised of dedicated animal representatives. The job of those representatives should be to act as trustees of the interests of ‘animal members’ of the political community. In other words, their job should be to translate the interests of animals with whom we share a ‘community of fate’ into their deliberations with other representatives over what is in the public good.

‘Everything Belongs to God’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Rech
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wealth Redistribution ◽  
Social Teachings

This chapter examines and contextualizes Sayyid Qutb’s doctrine of property and social justice, which he articulated at a time of deep social conflicts in Egypt. The chapter describes how Qutb, along with other writers concerned with economic inequality in the 1920s–40s such as Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949) and Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri (1895–1971), conceptualised private ownership as a form of power that must be limited by religious obligations and subordinated to the public good. The chapter further shows that Qutb made this notion of restrained property central to a broader theory of social justice and wealth redistribution by combining the social teachings of the Qur’an with the modern ideal of the centralized interventionist state. Arguably this endeavour to revitalise the Quranic roots of Islamic charity and simultaneously appropriate the discourse of modern statehood made Qutb’s position oscillate between legalism and anti-legalism.

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