This Report on Local Investments of Partnership Funds has been created to show how California Community College districts have been using their Partnership for Excellence dollars for the 1998-99 and the 1999-00 fiscal years. Each district's page includes information separated into the six PFE goal areas: (1) Transfer; (2) Degrees and Certificates;…

Because of the individual authority of each State for its own educational program, practices and policies differ widely among them in many respects. Yet in the midst of differences there are also common elements of development. The U. S. Office of Education, in presenting this series of monographs, has attempted to point out those common elements,…

State legislatures appear to be opting for one of several schemes to provide equalized local initiative and thus preserve the State-local partnership of K-12 funding, which scheme could be called creeping State funding.'' (Author)

The State is the most appropriate level of government for planning, administering a comprehensive preschool education system. (Author/JN)

Discusses what State education agencies can do to achieve their own objectives with federally funded programs. (JF)

Promotes the argument favoring State support of schools. (LN)

Summarizes the responses of all 50 states to 14 questions regarding the procedures, requirements, and limitations or obligations of school districts when they have surplus school buildings with outstanding bond debt. (MLF)

In this article, both the psychology behind minimum competency testing (MCT) and the statistics employed to determine the line between competence and incompetence are attacked. MCT is viewed as a crisis created to discredit teachers and schools and as a means of invasion of public education by state level bureaucrats and politicians. (RLV)

Considers the distribution of powers of decision-making and responsibility resulting from different patterns of educational administration, with particular reference to the United Kingdom but with some international comparisons. (Author/RK)

One of the continuing dilemmas of educational finance is the difficulty of reconciling the advantages of local control in education with the need for provincial control when all funds are provided from provincial revenues. Considers a proposal for school finance reform advocated by the Graham Commission on Education, Public Services and…

Explores the controversy surrounding the appointment of William Bulger, a well-known politician, as president of the University of Massachusetts. The complexities of educational policy in Massachusetts are revealed. Ultimately the process aired the views of all stakeholders in a process that should contribute to the eventual success of Bulger in…

This article provides an overview of state finance polices for gifted education and frameworks for evaluating those policies. The frameworks are then applied for evaluating state school finance policies as of 1998-99 and state aid allocated in 2002. Only Florida provided both sufficient and equitable support for gifted education. (Contains…

Local school districts do not figure prominently in contemporary school reform efforts centered at state and school levels. This article examines how two school districts responded to an expanding state role in instructional policy making. Case studies underline districts' key reform role and suggest that state and local instructional policies are…

School districts are caught in a financial squeeze with reduced federal funding, recessionary reductions at the state level, and political pressures against raising taxes. School districts are searching for alternative sources of funds including school impact fees and business partnerships. One method, tax abatement, often costs districts because…