This article reviews the development of my thesis that the California Supreme Court's Serrano decisions, which began in 1971 and sought to disconnect district school spending with local property taxes, led to the fiscal conditions that caused California voters to embrace Proposition 13 in 1978, which radically undermined the local property tax…

The intent of a liberal arts education is to expose students to a broad array of ideas and subject matter. Its perceived weakness involves the possible lack of preparedness for the workplace; a liberal arts education is deliberately not vocational. To bridge that divide colleges and universities, in cooperation with industry, non-profits, and the…

This paper examines various ways in which states, colleges, and universities are balancing tensions between demands for greater institutional autonomy and demands for greater accountability to state legislatures. Noted are the states' varying fiscal situations, mixed messages on autonomy given by state governments to institutions, and increasing…

Trustees and other officials of state higher education institutions should understand their role in the legislative process, including respecting and understanding the political process; working closely with the institution's lobbyist, knowing your limits and advantages, monitoring public opinion, understanding campaign contributions,…

The opinions of Pennsylvania educational and legislative leaders on four issues of critical importance to higher education in the state were evaluated. For the two issue areas of enrollment and resources, respondents were asked through interviews and a questionnaire to make projections for the 1980s, to identify the group or agency that should be…