Education Choice under Uncertainty - Implications for Public Policy

We analyse how progressive taxation and education subsidies affect schooling decisions when the returns to education are stochastic. We use the theory of real options to solve the problem of education choice in a dynamic stochastic model. We show that education attainment will be an increasing function of the risk associated with education. Furthermore, this result holds regardless of the degree of risk aversion. We also show that progressive taxes will tend to increase education attainment.Education Choice; Dynamic Optimization, Optimal Stopping, Uncertainty

Expenditure incidence in Africa: microeconomic evidence

In this paper, we examine the progressivity of social sector expenditures in eight sub-Saharan African countries. We employ dominance tests, complemented by extended Gini/concentration coefficients, to determine whether health and education expenditures redistribute resources to the poor. We find that social services are poorly targeted. Among the services examined, primary education tends to be most progressive and university education is least progressive. The benefits associated with hospital care are also less progressive than other health facilities. Our results also show that, while concentration curves are a useful way to summarise information on the distributional benefits of government expenditures, statistical testing of differences in curves is important.

Ethnic Education: A Clash of Cultures in Progressive Chicago

The City of Chicago recently embarked upon a pioneering effort to transform the quality of its public school system. The concept of decentralization that allows for neighborhood councils, greater decision-making at the local level, and increased parental involvement in the schools is not a new one. Similar governance structures of a century ago fell victim to class and ethnic factionalism. The progressive vision of a homogenous society assumed a passive clientele and a consensus culture. Particular educational programs brought diverse groups closer to the mainstream, but the resultant mass culture accommodated pluralistic values rather than the sought-after homogeneity

Gun Carrying Among Adolescents

Outdoor education is a promising educational field that can support indoor education and provide benefits beyond the evidentknowledge. Outdoor and indoor education together can formulate the ground for an integrated learning. In Greece, like manycountries, outdoor education and its potential contribution to the learning process have not been clearly and intentionally testedyet, even though the country tends to follow a progressive educational philosophy. This research focuses on the subject ofmathematics and explores the connections between the existing philosophy and practices of mathematics education in Greece andoutdoor education theory and practice. Following the method of content analysis, the connections were identified through theexistence of basic outdoor education concepts in the mathematics textbooks of the last three grades of primary school. Althoughthe expectations, because of the lack of personal experiences, could not be high, the application of outdoor education seems to befar from impossible in Greece. It could rather flourish even without any changes in the books, when its potentialities are realizedby the teachers

Education Choice under Uncertainty and Public Policy

We analyse how progressive taxation and education subsidies affect schooling deci- sions when the returns to education are stochastic. We use the theory of real options to solve the problem of education choice in a dynamic, life-cycle consistent, stochastic model. We show that education attainment will be an increasing function of the risk associated with education. Furthermore, this result holds whether or not agents can borrow in order to pay for education and regardless of the degree of risk aversion. We also examine the link between consumption over the life-cycle and education choice to show that higher initial wealth will usually - but not always - have a positive effect on education attainment. Finally we show that progressive taxes will tend to reduce education attainment for the poor but increase it for the rich.Education Choice; Dynamic Optimization, Optimal Stopping, Uncertainty

INTRODUCTION: “Toward a Socially Progressive Conception of Art Education”

Given the range and subtlety of our cultural conditioning, art education must, of necessity, become critical. It must place critical cultural literacy in the heart of its theory and practice. Cultural literacy does indeed open the way to personal and social emancipation. It brings in its enlightening wake the preconditions of emancipation, knowledge and freedom: knowledge and freedom to think, feel, and perceive as human individual and not as manipulated social products; knowledge and freedom to experience and create forms of visual culture which are liberating rather than enslaving; knowledge and freedom to conceptualize and build toward a more aesthetic, humane, and democratic culture and society; knowledge and freedom to develop an art education which would be an agent of critical understanding and progressive social change

Student Loans as Taxes

The growth of college tuition and the corresponding rise in student loan debt have become major issues of public importance. Total outstanding student debt is at least $1.3 trillion, and tuitions keep growing, even while we arguably need to invest more in higher education to add skills and grow our economy. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has made higher education reform a major part of his Democratic presidential campaign platform, proposing a new financial transactions tax to pay for large grants to states that offer free tuition to public universities. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, has proposed grants to states to offer ‘‘no-debt-tuition,’’ paid for in part by repealing several tax expenditures. These and other plans would essentially increase federal spending on higher education through expanded progressive taxation

Technology meets Student Centred Learning: "good practice" in university teaching

In tertiary institutions across Australia, good teaching increasingly means student centred and technological. In this paper, this is demonstrated by a case study of Queensland University of Technology, where recent policy on teaching, promoted by management and supported by teaching and learning services, suggests two things. The first that it is impossible for QUT academics to educate their students without using inclusive and dialogical methods of instruction. The second, that at QUT, effective use of technology is paramount to the success of such student centred learning. This relationship, given legitimacy through the QUT focus on flexible delivery, raises larger questions about the dominant assumptions regarding ‘good practice’ within the university setting. In this context, the dominant assumption is the superiority of progressive education and this in itself assumes further a humanistic notion of the self. This paper will suggest three things. First that such assumptions should be challenged within tertiary teaching theory and practice, as they have been within the wider domain of social and cultural theory. Second that the new valorised practices of progressive education actually depend upon old derogated practices, but that this reliance is either downplayed or disregarded. Third, that the resulting unified policy on good teaching, needs rethinking