The idea behind public charter schools was to develop flexible models of public schools and to incubate innovative ideas that then could be shared with the district's public schools. Today, almost 20 years since the first public charter school opened its doors in Minnesota, one still does not see consistent, productive collaboration and shared…

The classic campaign strategy in most school communities involves using the mass media to attract widespread attention to the upcoming budget or tax levy vote. Such strategies tend to bring uninformed voters in unknown quantities to the polls. The authors' recent experience, working with a committed and well-organized campaign chairperson, helped…

Representative Augustus Hawkins, outgoing chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, stunned state governments and the education community in January by introducing a bill requiring each state to certify that its public education funds are or will be equalized by 1996, contingent on federal funding redistribution penalties. (MLH)

Washington is totally ignorant about what takes place in schools and would rather fingerpoint than exercise true leadership. President Bush assumes that minimal vouchers to attend expensive private schools (with selective admission standards) will make a difference, ignoring the issues of financial inequity and inadequate city services. Meanwhile,…

A proponent rebuts claims that charter schools rob funds and students from regular public schools, gamble with children's lives and taxpayers' money, are not truly accountable, resemble other public schools, undermine democratic values, underserve disabled children, marginalize minorities, invite profiteering, front for vouchers; and represent…

Genuine reforms are impossible without addressing deleterious effects of legally binding mechanisms such as collective bargaining and unionism. An adversarial industrial-labor model will not serve a profession crying for collegiality and collaboration. School finance and desegregation litigation has had limited success in improving schools.…

Children's Investment Trust is a proposed trust fund for children's services (nutrition, health, education, and social services) similar in design to Social Security fund. The trust would be funded by a small, progressive payroll tax levied on both employer and employee on wages greater than $5 per hour. The tax would raise $25 billion more every…

Nearly every state shortchanges poor and geographically isolated children. It is unpopular to spend on the neediest. Instead of fully funding Title 1 and The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Congress and President Clinton construct new competitive, general grant programs available to middle-class communities. (MLH)

Confronting state funding problems and the federal government's decreasing fiscal responsibility for education, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education heard compelling testimony last fall from Kern Alexander, who described the "coming apart of America." Pointing to profound inequalities within states, he urged…

Every child should have an equal opportunity to become a symbolic analyst (professional worker) and enjoy the resulting social, political, and economic benefits. To provide an adequate education for everyone, school leaders must bridge the chasm separating educational finance and school programs. Visionary leadership is needed to pursue adequacy…

The idea is not new: Offer courses remotely, build in variety and the students will come. This article discusses how public schools are investing in offering online courses, catering to students' specific learning needs and to remote locations. Several surveys conducted in recent years show that school districts nationwide are embracing this…

Rather than establish a national test, we should examine what other industrialized nations require of their children. Persistence and creativity are not easily tested, and results are bound to be oversimplified. Developing basic American education standards is appropriate only if every public school is equipped with adequate resources. (MLH)

Hundreds of school districts nationwide are looking toward user fees to sustain programs inadequately funded by state income and property taxes. A recent survey found that 34 states now permit the assessment of fees against students. User fees raise equity and legality issues, limit student participation, and can be used to garner public support…

Discusses how the absence of equal resources for schools or adequate support for families must not prevent educators from eliminating the gross inequalities brought about by assigning our least-qualified teachers to the neediest students, tolerating shoddy practice, steering students to inferior curricular choices, and generally miseducating the…

Mary Jean LeTendre, director of U.S. Education Department's Office of Compensatory Education, wants to concentrate Chapter 1 dollars on the neediest students in the neediest schools. John F. Jennings, general counsel for the House Education and Labor Committee, predicts more public education funding, a continuing push for national standards and…