Private Schooling in the U.S.: Expenditures, Supply, and Policy Implications

This report provides a first-of-its-kind descriptive summary of private school expenditures. It includes comparisons of expenditures among different types and affiliations of private schools, and it also compares those expenditures with public school expenditures for districts in the same state and labor market. Results indicate that (1) the less-regulated private school sector is more varied in many key features (teacher attributes, pay and school expenditures) than the more highly regulated public schooling sector; (2) these private school variations align and are largely explained by affiliation -- primarily religious affiliation -- alone; and (3) a ranking of school sectors by average spending correlates well with a ranking of those sectors by average standardized test scores

Adding Up the Spending: Fiscal Disparities and Philanthropy among New York City Charter Schools

This brief explores the financial resources of New York City charter schools. It also addresses differences in student population characteristics and student outcomes across New York City (NYC) charter schools, and evaluates how financial resources translate to other schooling inputs, such as more or less experienced teachers and smaller or larger class sizes.These schools are examined within the broader context of school funding equity and factors that other research has shown to have the potential to advance or disrupt educational equity. In American public education, funding equity involves multiple levels, linked to the multiple levels of our school systems. State systems govern local public school districts, with schools nested within districts. Public charter schools are either nested within districts or operate as independent entities.NYC charter schools are of particular interest to national audiences mainly because they have been used to argue that charter schools outperform public schools and that New York's experience with charter schools suggests a transferable, nationally scalable policy option. Three studies concerning NYC charter schools in particular are frequently cited: Dobbie & Fryer, 2009; Hoxby, Murarka and Kang, 2009; and CREDO, 2009.It is important to note, however, that the NYC context may be unique in terms of the role played by philanthropy and so-called venture philanthropy. Significant philanthropic attention has been focused on charter management organizations like the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and Achievement First, which manage charter schools in NYC and elsewhere. NYC charter schools are both touted and blasted in the popular media as being the new favored charities of, for example, wealthy hedge fund managers. The extent that NYC charters have become philanthropic favorites means that NYC charter schools may be quite different from those in places like Missouri or Arizona, distant from the NYC philanthropic culture. In fact, even charter schools in Albany and Buffalo or across the river in New Jersey may be insulated from this unique financial setting. Therefore, additional philanthropic resources may explain a great deal of the claimed success of NYC charter schools. If this is the case, attempts to replicate or scale up these supposed successes would be more difficult and costly than assumed.This brief offers concrete information about NYC charters and their finances to help ground these important policy discussions.This brief is published by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), and is one of a series of briefs made possible in part by funding from The Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice

Business forecasts 1978 : a year of moderate economic growth

An abstract for this article is not availableForecasting

Unchanging public order policing in changing times in East Africa

ABSTRACTThis article offers a political analysis of the practices and motives of public order policing in Ethiopia and Uganda. It offers an explanation of the continuation of forceful tactics against political protest in a context of changing methods of information gathering, organisation and mobilisation by urban activists resulting from their access to internet and communication technology. It finds the two regimes, as anocracies, are caught between legally allowing protest and yet, conscious of their fragility, determined to crush opposition. For the latter approach, their militarist leaderships rely heavily on continued police violence. The paper concludes that failure of the police to adapt their public order policing to the new protest environment leaves them increasingly ineffective and unpopular. It is likely to provoke an escalation of violence and may both undermine the legitimacy of their regimes and reverse their attempts to open political space that justified their rebellions against former autocracies.</jats:p

Cape Verde: marketing good governance

Faced with a lack of natural resources Cape Verde has made good governance one of its most marketable products. Running parallel to the institutionalisation of democratic politics there has been an overhaul and growing sophistication in public administration, though certain weaknesses persist. This report argues that it is reform and improvement in this area in particular that has enabled this small island state to punch above its weight and achieve remarkable social, economic and political results. But will the successful formula of the past decade prove sufficient for the future? Poverty and unemployment have by no means been conquered. Much of the economic growth has been based in the tourist sector and the government is well aware of the dangers of over-reliance on a single industry. Cape Verde’s midway location between South America and Europe and its increasing international transport connections will continue to offer advantages to drug traffickers. The next few years of the world financial crisis will show whether marketing good governance is enough and whether this is the model for small resource developing states.Der Inselstaat Kap Verde hat seine Anstrengungen zu guter Regierungsführung (Good Governance) erfolgreich demonstriert. Parallel zur Institutionalisierung demokratischer Regierungsstrukturen wurde die Verwaltung reformiert und modernisiert, wenn auch immer noch Problembereiche erkennbar sind. Der Autor sieht insbesondere in den politischen und administrativen Reformen den Hintergrund für die erfolgreiche soziale, wirtschaftliche und politische Entwicklung dieser kleinen Inselrepublik. Aber wird dieses Rezept, das im vergangenen Jahrzehnt seine Wirksamkeit beweisen konnte, auch in Zukunft ausreichend sein? Armut und Unterbeschäftigung sind keineswegs besiegt. Ein Großteil des Wirtschaftswachstums basiert auf dem Tourismussektor; die Regierung ist sich der Gefahr wohl bewusst, die in zu großer Abhängigkeit von einem einzigen Wirtschaftszweig liegt. Die geographische Lage der Inseln auf dem Weg von Südamerika nach Europa und die zunehmenden internationalen Transportverbindungen werden weiterhin von Drogenhändlern benutzt. Die kommenden Jahre der Weltfinanzkrise werden erweisen, ob das bisherige Erfolgsrezept Good Governance als Modell für Entwicklungsländer mit geringen eigenen Ressourcen gelten kann

Is it complex environments or complex systems that undermines police reform in developing countries?

This article is a conceptual review that explores the usefulness of complexity theory to police reform in developing countries. Following the evidence of relative failure and its explanation in terms of unique individual factors or the complex nature of the environment, the article turns to considering whether the nature of police organisations as complex social systems is not a principal reason for failure. The article outlines some of the key features of complex systems and illustrates these from actual police reform. The article then turns to whether complexity theory can be of any practical use in police reform programmes. It concludes that greater success may be forthcoming if the insights of complexity theory are taken on board by reformers