The Effect of Charter Schools on Districts’ Student Composition, Costs, and Efficiency: The Case of New York State

Charter schools can influence a school district's costs by reducing economies of scale and by changing the share of high cost students a district serves, but might also increase the district's efficiency through competition. Utilizing data for New York State school districts from 1998/99 to 2013/14, we estimate difference-in-differences models to assess the effect of charter schools on enrollment and student composition. Then, we estimate an expenditure function, using data prior to the charter school program, to measure the costs associated with reaching a given performance standard for students in various need categories and different enrollments. Next, using the entire data set, we run a second expenditure function to determine changes in efficiency associated with charter school entry. We find that charter schools increase the cost of providing education, and that these cost increases are larger than short-run efficiency gains, but are offset by efficiency gains in the long term

Public School Choice And Integration: Evidence from Durham, North Carolina

Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature. Reasonable assumptions about the distribution of preferences over race, class, and school characteristics suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students. The results of our empirical analysis are consistent with these theoretical considerations. Using information on the actual schools students attend and on the schools in their assigned attendance zones, we find that schools in Durham are more segregated by race and class as a result of school choice programs than they would be if all students attended their geographically assigned schools. In addition, we find that the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race

Osservazioni sulla legge n.42 del 2009 in materia di federalismo fiscale

1noopenopenBifulco, RaffaeleBifulco, Raffael

Il custode della democrazia parlamentare: nota a prima lettura alla sentenza del Tribunale costituzionale federale tedesco del 7 settembre 2011 sui meccanismi europei di stabilità finanziaria

1no1. Al di là degli aspetti tecnici, la sentenza del Tribunale costituzionale federale tedesco del 7 settembre 2011 riafferma la centralità del principio democratico come motore e, allo stesso tempo, limite dell'integrazione europea. Secondo il Giudice delle leggi tedesco, il diritto fondamentale al voto non si esaurisce nel conferimento di “una formale legittimazione del potere statale a livello federale”, bensì garantisce i cittadini da svuotamenti sostanziali della sovranità popolare attraverso trasferimenti di compiti e poteri dal Parlamento nazionale a istituzioni sovranazionali (98) . Tale diritto fondamentale, per come disciplinato dall'art. 38 LF (Legge fondamentale) , esprime il principio democratico sancito nell'art. 20 LF , che è a sua volta dichiarato intangibile, in quanto espressione dell'identità costituzionale, dall'art. 79, c.3, LF Sono proprio questi tre articoli, in sintesi, a rappresentare i parametri costituzionali alla stregua dei quali il Tribunale affronta e risolve la questione sottopostagli (120). Non è questa la sede per entrare nell'analisi dettagliata della sentenza. Provo a riassumere qui i principali e, per lo più, coincidenti motivi dei due ricorsi, dividendoli, per comodità, in due gruppi: quelli più strettamente attinenti al testo costituzionale tedesco e quelli relativi, direttamente o indirettamente, alle norme dei Trattati unionali (mi si perdoni l'inelegante ma utile neologismo). Con riguardo ai primi, il c.d. Währungsunion-Finanzstabilisierungsgesetz del 7 maggio 2010 (la legge che autorizza gli aiuti finanziari alla Grecia) e il c.d. Euro-Stabilisierungsmechanismus-Gesetz del 21 maggio 2010 (la legge che ha recepito il provvisorio meccanismo di stabilizzazione previsto dagli Stati dell'unione monetaria) , entrerebbero in illegittima collisione con l'art. 38 LF, che, oltre a garantire il fondamentale diritto al voto, prevede il divieto di mandato imperativo per i membri del Bundestag. Secondo i ricorrenti, la norma garantirebbe che ogni fase del processo d'integrazione unionale venga scandita da adeguate decisioni dei due rami del Parlamento tedesco. Altro rilevante profilo di contrasto con l'art. 38 LF si produrrebbe nella parte in cui il secondo provvedimento normativo si limita a prevedere la ricerca dell'intesa da parte del Governo con la commissione bilancio del Bundestag: esso risulterebbe illegittimo perché permetterebbe al Governo di decidere autonomamente in caso di contrasto con la suddetta commissione.openopenBifulco, RaffaeleBifulco, Raffael

Il dilemma della democrazia costituzionale

Il contributo affronta la tematica della democrazia costituzionale, dando conto delle diverse ricostruzioni teoriche e delle problematiche connesse. L'autore differenzia la nozione di democrazia costituzionale dalla nozione di democrazia deliberativa e di democrazia partecipativa e nella parte conclusiva tratta della crisi della democrazia costituzionale a seguito dei processi di globalizzazione economica. The paper focuses on the themes of the constitutional democracy, considering the different theoretical reconstructions and their problems. The author differentiates the notion of the deliberative democracy from the notion of partecipative democracy and in the end of the paper discusses the crisis of the constitutional democracy which originates from the economical globalization proces

2D-3D registration of CT vertebra volume to fluoroscopy projection: A calibration model assessment (doi:10.1155/2010/806094)

This study extends a previous research concerning intervertebral motion registration by means of 2D dynamic fluoroscopy to obtain a more comprehensive 3D description of vertebral kinematics. The problem of estimating the 3D rigid pose of a CT volume of a vertebra from its 2D X-ray fluoroscopy projection is addressed. 2D-3D registration is obtained maximising a measure of similarity between Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs (obtained from the CT volume) and real fluoroscopic projection. X-ray energy correction was performed. To assess the method a calibration model was realised a sheep dry vertebra was rigidly fixed to a frame of reference including metallic markers. Accurate measurement of 3D orientation was obtained via single-camera calibration of the markers and held as true 3D vertebra position; then, vertebra 3D pose was estimated and results compared. Error analysis revealed accuracy of the order of 0.1 degree for the rotation angles of about 1?mm for displacements parallel to the fluoroscopic plane, and of order of 10?mm for the orthogonal displacement.<br/

Relaxing state-access constraints in stateful programmable data planes

Supporting the programming of stateful packet forwarding functions in hardware has recently attracted the interest of the research community. When designing such switching chips, the challenge is to guarantee the ability to program functions that can read and modify data plane's state, while keeping line rate performance and state consistency. Current state-of-the-art designs are based on a very conservative all-or-nothing model: programmability is limited only to those functions that are guaranteed to sustain line rate, with any traffic workload. In effect, this limits the maximum time to execute state update operations. In this paper, we explore possible options to relax these constraints by using simulations on real traffic traces. We then propose a model in which functions can be executed in a larger but bounded time, while preventing data hazards with memory locking. We present results showing that such flexibility can be supported with little or no throughput degradation.Comment: 6 page

El cuerpo célebre: Celebridades, mercado y mercantilización

The article aims to analyse how the celebrities’ bodies, especially in sports, incorporates dominant public values allowing us to understand the transformation of the prevailing ideas in a social context. Nowadays, the athletes’ bodies are no longer tied only to performance or sporting success –or to values like hard work, productivity, perseverance, sacrifice, discipline– but much more, than in the past, to qualities such as beauty, wellness, and style. Fame can depend not only on the achievements or sporting skills, but also on simple visibility. Above all, the athlete’s body, with its incorporated values, has today a market value, and the celebrity is readily commodifiedEl artículo pretende analizar cómo el cuerpo de las celebridades, especialmente en los deportes, asimila los valores públicos dominantes. Eso nos permitirá entender la transformación de las ideas prevalecientes en un contexto social. Hoy el cuerpo del atleta ya no está vinculado solo a los resultados o éxitos deportivos –o a valores como el trabajo duro, la perseverancia, el sacrificio– sino, y mucho más que en el pasado, a cualidades tales como la belleza, el bienestar, la estética. La fama puede depender no sólo de la habilidad deportiva o de los resultados, sino también de la simple visibilidad. En particular, el cuerpo del atleta tiene hoy día, junto a los valores que incorpora, un valor de mercado y su fama se comercializa fácilment