Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Politics of Blocking

The Forum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry M. Moe
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
American Education ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Teachers Unions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Veto Points

Why has the modern era of American education reform been such a disappointment? Why has a nation so dedicated to improving its schools continually pulled up short, year after year, embracing weak reforms unsuited to the challenge and refusing to throw off the shackles of the past? The answer comes down to simple fundamentals that have long been staples of political science: vested interests, checks and balances. The vested interests in this case are the teachers unions, which are by far the most powerful groups in the politics of education. And their power is magnified by the American system of checks and balances—which, quite by design, creates veto points that make it exceedingly difficult for reformers to get major new legislation passed and correspondingly easy for opponents to block. The teachers unions have been masters of the politics of blocking for the past quarter century. Major reform is threatening to their vested interests in the existing system, and they have used their formidable power—leveraged by checks and balances—to repel, weaken, and render ineffective the efforts of reformers to bring real change. This is the basic story of the modern reform era. The rest is detail.

Accelerating Agricultural Growth—Is Irrigation Institutional Reform Necessary? (Distinguishedl Lecture)

1996 ◽  
Vol 35 (4I) ◽  
pp. 399-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Mellor
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rates ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Residual Effect ◽  
Agricultural Growth ◽  
The Past ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Economic Growth Rates

The right to the flow of income from water is vigorously pursued, protected, and fought over in any arid part of the world. Pakistan is of course no exception. Reform of irrigation institutions necessarily changes the rights to water, whether it be those of farmers, government, or government functionaries. Those perceived rights may be explicit and broadly accepted, or simply takings that are not even considered legitimate. Nevertheless they will be fought over. Pakistan has a long history of proposals for irrigation reform, little or none being implemented, except as isolated pilot projects. Thus, to propose major changes in irrigation institutions must be clearly shown to have major benefits to justify the hard battles that must be fought and the goodwill of those who might win those battles for reform. Proponents of irrigation institution reform have always argued the necessity of the reforms and the large gains to be achieved. Perhaps, however, those arguments have not been convincing. This paper will briefly outline the failed attempts at irrigation reform to provide an element of reality to the discussion. It will then proceed to make the case of the urgency of reform in a somewhat different manner to the past. Finally, current major reform proposals will be presented. This paper approaches justification of irrigation reform by focusing on the agricultural growth rate. It does so because that is the critical variable influencing poverty rates and is a significant determinant of over-all economic growth rates. The paper decomposes growth rates and suggests a residual effect of deterioration of the irrigation system that is large and calls for policy and institutional reform. The data are notional, suggesting the usefulness of the approach and paves the way for more detailed empirical analysis and enquiry for the future.

The Information Content of Royalty Income

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Gu ◽  
Baruch Lev
Keyword(s):  
Information Content ◽  
Intangible Assets ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Patent Licensing ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Steep Increase ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corporate Growth

The rise of intangible assets in size and contribution to corporate growth over the past quarter century was accompanied by a steep increase in the rate and scope of patenting. Consequently, many patent-rich companies, particularly in the science-based and high-tech industries, are extensively engaged in the licensing and sale of patents. We examine various valuation and disclosure aspects of the outcome of patent licensing—royalty income. Our findings indicate the following: (1) royalty income is highly relevant to securities valuation, (2) the intensity of royalty income provides investors with an important signal about the quality and prospects of firms' R&D expenditures, and (3) a substantial number of companies engaged in patent licensing do not disclose royalty income in financial reports.

Arab Historical Writing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef M. Choueiri
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
Arabic World

This chapter traces the principal historiographical developments in the Arab world since 1945. It is divided into two major parts. The first part deals with the period extending from 1945 to 1970. During this period the discourse of either socialism or nationalism permeated most historical writings. The second part presents the various attempts made to decolonize, rewrite, or theorize history throughout the Arab world. The chapter then shows how in the various states of the Arabic world—some but not all of which have become fundamentalist Islamic regimes—Western models continued to be followed, though often with a more explicitly socialist approach than would be the case in America or Western Europe. By the 1970s, well before the shake-up of radical Islamicization that has dominated the past quarter-century, the entire Arabic world began to push hard against the dominance of residual Western colonial history.

Equality, Liberty, and Education

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kiel
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Double Helix ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Education Law ◽  
Student Diversity ◽  
American Education ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
The Future ◽  
1960S And 1970S

This chapter traces the arc of American education, describing how the tension between liberty and equality has shaped education law and policy every step of the way. The chapter begins by exploring the origins of American education, including the equality-minded adoption of compulsory education and common schools and the liberty-minded desire for parents to control elements of their children’s education. Next, the chapter expands to consideration of equality and liberty in the education of groups. This includes the equality revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s during which schooling became more inclusive of multiple groups of students, and also the liberty-based backlash to those revolutions pursuing greater local control and self-determination. The chapter then highlights the liberty and equality-based tensions impacting contemporary education reform, such as the standards and choice movements. Finally, the chapter looks to the future, arguing that advances in technology, increasing student diversity, and unprecedented flux in the structure of American education will force continued balancing of the values of liberty and equality. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these core democratic impulses—liberty and equality—form a double helix at the core of many of the conflicts in American education law and policy and that management of the relationship between them will continue to drive how Americans respond to educational challenges of the future.

American Institutional Studies: Present Knowledge and Past Trends

1971 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Soltow
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Present Knowledge ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past

The production of economic history, like that in many fields of scholarly endeavor, increased sharply in the past quarter-century, compared to the rate of output in earlier eras. While the “new” economic history, with its emphasis on economic theory and measurement, has attracted considerable attention during the last decade, “traditional” economic history, written along institutional lines, has continued to be significant, both quantitatively (in terms of numbers of books and articles) and qualitatively (as assessed by contributions to our understanding of economic processes.)

Design Philanthropy: Challenges and Opportunities in the Evolution of Philanthropic Giving

2021 ◽  
pp. 089590482110494
Author(s):  
Melissa Arnold Lyon ◽  
Shani S. Bretas ◽  
Douglas D. Ready
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Venture Philanthropy ◽  
Policy Borrowing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Instructional Core ◽  
Democratic Engagement

Over the past several decades large philanthropies have adopted aggressive approaches to education reform that scholars have labeled venture philanthropy. These efforts focused on broad changes to schooling and education policy, borrowing techniques from the venture capital world. But many foundations have recently become convinced that market forces and macro-level policymaking alone cannot drive educational improvement, particularly in areas related to classroom teaching and learning. In response, foundations have begun to design their own instructional innovations and identify providers to implement them. This paper interprets these recent efforts as early evidence of a distinct adaptation in the evolving role of philanthropies, which we dub design philanthropy. Although this approach represents an attempt by foundations to simultaneously increase democratic engagement, directly influence the instructional core, and spur educational innovation, it poses new risks for coherence, scalability, and sustainability in education policymaking.

Perspectives on the active volcanoes of China

2021 ◽  
pp. SP510-2021-87
Author(s):  
Jiandong Xu ◽  
Clive Oppenheimer ◽  
James O. S. Hammond ◽  
Haiquan Wei
Keyword(s):  
Hainan Island ◽  
Special Volume ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Special Publication ◽  
Current State ◽  
International Collaborations ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Natural Laboratory ◽  
Active Volcanoes

AbstractChina ishas a rich record of Holocene volcanism that is relatively little known outside the country. It is encountered in home to a number of volcanoes that have erupted in the Holocene. These range from large stratovolcanoes in the northeast, linked to subduction of the pPacific plate (e.g., Changbaishan); in , more diffuse volcanismsmaller volcanoes on the edges of the TibetTibetan margin, linked toassociated with the collision of India and AEurasia (e.g., Tengchong, Ashishan), and more isolated regions of volcanismcentres possibly linked topossibly resulting from mantle upwelling (e.g., volcanoes in Hainan island). This makes China a natural laboratory for studyingstudies of intraplate volcanism, yet the study of volcanology in China is young, with a significant increase in research only over the last 25 yearsand significant progress in understanding its nature and origins has been made over the past quarter century. To highlight recent advances and the current state of knowledge, thisHere, we introduce the first publication in English to provide a comprehensive survey of the state of knowledge and research highlights. special volume presents the first compilation of research on the active volcanoes of China in English. This first paper introduces the book, which coversAccordingly, we provide an overview of the dynamics, geology, geochemistry, volcanic histories and geophysical studies of the 14 volcanoesvolcanic areas that have erupted in theassociated with Holocene documented thus far. Our hope is that this special publication acts as The special publication represents a benchmark reference on the topic but, as importantly, we hope it will stimulatea resource to allow new, international collaborations to be developed to help understandaimed at deepening our understanding of the origins, history, hazards and associated risks from future eruptions of China's volcanoes.

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