Be All You Can Be (Without the Protection of the Constitution)

[Excerpt] “Despite the generous inclusion by President Reagan of the many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in the concept of the people of this republic, it is not altogether dear whether one whose status has changed from ordinary citizen to a member of the armed forces can legitimately claim any of the constitutional protections of citizenship until he or she is no longer a member of the armed forces. In the course of this nation\u27s history the Supreme Court has denied some or all of the protection of the Constitution to many groups of people, including African-Americans, 2 women,3 Native Americans, 4 Americans of Japanese ancestry,5 aliens, 6 and more recently to members of the armed forces. Just six months after President Reagan spoke the words quoted above, the Court overturned a precedent of nearly twenty years and held, in Solorio v. United States,7 that a member of the armed forces could be tried by a court-martial for virtually any offense without regard to the impact the alleged offense may, or may not, have had on the military or the ability of that service member to function in the military. While the decision may seem fairly innocuous at first blush, this article will demonstrate that the judicial mindset demonstrated by the Solorio holding is ill-conceived from the point of view of the soldier8 who is the accused at a court-martial. Moreover, the Supreme Court has demonstrated a judicial myopia which threatens the very form of government conceived by the framers of the Constitution. The decision perpetuates legal class distinctions which should not play a part in a democracy or in the administration of criminal justice and it paves the way for the creation of a warrior class with fewer rights in criminal proceedings.

The Tenth Circuit: Playing by the Rules

[Excerpt] In 1994, the Tenth Circuit published more than four dozen opinions construing the guidelines and joined the majority of circuits in adopting the One- Book rule. The Court continued to refrain from interfering with the exercise of discretion by district judges, but made clear that it does not give district courts carte blanche. Four issues in decisions covered in this review are the retroactive application of amendments to the guidelines; the standards used in characterizing a defendant as a major or minor player for purposes of increasing or decreasing the sentence; the impact of post-arrest efforts at rehabilitation on sentencing-at least in drug cases; and the elements of obstruction of justice for purposes of increasing a sentence

A Technician's Dream? The Critical Reception of 3-D Films in Britain

Recent debates about the role of 3-D within cinema (and other media) have contained the traces of a largely anti-stereoscopic agenda that can be traced back to critical responses to 3-D in the 1950s. This article considers how British film reviews from the 1950s and 1980s established potent terms of discussion around the 3-D technology, its potential aesthetic development, and the role of stereoscopy within cinema. Exploring the parameters that the original reviewers set in place concerning the 3-D aesthetic, notably claims around realism, novelty, and gimmickry, the article argues that the language and terms of 1950s British film reviewers have worked to set an agenda that resonates through both the 1980s 3-D revival and modern day digital 3-D

Expanded access to secondary schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa: key planning and finance issues

This paper makes the case for managed expansion of secondary schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa. The great majority of secondary age African children remain excluded from access to good quality secondary schooling. Increasing numbers are graduating from primary schools where enrolments are rapidly growing as a result of successful Education for All programmes. The knowledge and skill that secondary schools can provide is central to closing the gap between Sub Saharan Africa and the rest of the world in the capabilities in the labour force that can sustain growth. The analyses undertaken for the Secondary Education in Africa (SEIA) programme of the World Bank have explored many dimensions of the challenges ahead. This paper complements this work and offers new insights into necessary reforms of policy and practice. It outlines the current status and structure of secondary provision, and the demographic issues that will influence expanded access. It then elaborates some of the key issues facing governments and development partners, and reviews the resources that would be needed to reach different levels of participation. It offers a set of policy options and strategies that can be used to shape managed growth within sustainable financial frameworks. The analysis indicates that budget shares between educational levels and overall spending on secondary education need to be revisited if higher participation is to be achieved. More than 3.0% of gross national product (GNP) would be needed to achieve gross enrolment rates of 60% at lower secondary and 30% at upper secondary in low enrolment countries with existing cost structures. The costs per pupil have to fall if expanded access is to be sustainable. No countries with ratios of secondary to primary unit costs of more than 3:1 succeed in universalising access to secondary schooling but many countries remain above these levels. New balances will have to struck between rates of expansion towards enrolment targets at primary, lower and upper secondary levels. Structural changes are needed that can facilitate higher secondary enrolment rates at affordable costs and diminish gender inequities. Better management of the flow of pupils could increase completion rates and lower costs per successful completer. Improved teacher deployment will be critical to successful expansion. Much more access could be provided if norms for pupil-teacher ratios (e.g. 35:1 at lower secondary, and 25:1 at upper secondary) could be applied and if class teacher ratios at secondary level fell from 3:1 to less than 2:1. Trained teachers will be critical to secondary expansion. Where demand is greatest, and initial training lengthy and expensive, alternative methods will have to be considered which lower costs of training and increase supply. So also will be changes in school management that can provide some incentives to manage human and physical resources efficiently. Secondary expansion without curriculum reform risks irrelevance and wastage. New populations of school children require curricula that address their needs, respond to changing social and economic circumstances, and recognise resource constraints. Alongside this physical capacity needs planned expansion in ways that optimise increased access. Expanded secondary access will benefit greatly from successful mechanisms to generate support from the communities that schools serve. There are many possible methods of cost-sharing and cost-recovery that can and should be facilitated. These need to be linked to the capacity of households to support fees and contributions so that they do not become exclusionary. Partnerships with non-government providers can make some contribution to expanded access. However, they are most likely to play a complementary role since they are unlikely to be the providers of last resort to those otherwise excluded by location, household income, or low achievement

Long term planning for EFA and the MDGs: modes and mechanisms

This discussion paper provides an overview and analytic guide to long term planning of education systems in the context of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. Long term gains in educational access depend on anticipating future financial and non-financial constraints on growth and on successful implementation of plans which support growth that can be sustained. Some recent expansion of primary schooling has failed to take a sufficiently long term approach to growth and has risked the creation of resource bottlenecks, poor trade offs between quality and quantity, and dependence on uncertain financing. The paper first outlines three different styles of long term planning – Planning Lite, Framework National Planning, and Participatory Planning. It distinguishes between aspirational and target-generating approaches. It then describes the processes and tools that are needed to develop long term plans for expanded access that can reconcile goals and targets with realistic resource envelopes. These processes are designed to include mechanisms to promote consensus and build commitment. The nature of Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEF) is then explored as a necessary tool to manage implementation. Appendix 1 provides more detailed discussion of the three approaches to planning. Appendix 2 elaborates on aspirational planning and gradients of achievement. Appendix 3 explores issues concerned with targets and indicators of performance. Appendix 4 contains a selected list of source materials

Law, Order, and the Consent Defense

[Excerpt] Among the benefits that we gain on leaving the state of nature and joining together in a civilized society is some amount of added protection of our individual possessions and person. Among our losses is the ability to plunder, at will, the possessions and bodies of those who are weaker than we are. These two statements are generally, but not absolutely, true. I propose that one hallmark of civilization is the security of everyone who lives under its authority that they are free from the unwanted interferences of others with their personal integrity and property rights.\u27 One way to gauge the proximity of my two opening statements to absolute truth, and thereby any society\u27s proximity to absolute civilization, is to examine the use of the consent defense in the criminal law. In this essay I will give a framework for examining the consent defense for this purpose. When we consider the consent defense, we typically think of it as occupying the border between individual liberty and governmental control. In the customary way that the criminal law is discussed and taught, as a control on individual conduct, this is a perfectly acceptable way to think of the consent defense. However, the criminal law can also be used as a means of controlling and oppressing groups. It is this type of control that makes a society more tribalistic and less democratic. And it is this type of control that is revealed on close examination of the consent defense

Improving access, equity and transitions in education: creating a research agenda

The Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE), was established with DFID support in 2006. It is a partnership between research institutions in the UK, Bangladesh, India, Ghana and South Africa. This paper is the first in a series of CREATE publications which will be developed over the life of the consortium. The first part of this paper discusses why access issues remain at the centre of the problems of achieving Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. Many children remain unenrolled at primary level, many of those enrolled attend irregularly and learn little, and large numbers fail to make the transition to secondary schooling. After outlining the magnitude of the challenge of improving access to universal levels, the paper develops analytic frameworks to understand access issues in new ways, and generate empirical studies related to each of the zones of exclusion identified. The last part of the paper briefly outlines some of the empirical research that is being developed

Beyond universal access to elementary education in India: is it achievable at affordable costs?

Investment in secondary schooling in India has been neglected for many years. Since the 1990s most emphasis has been on universalising access to elementary schooling, a task that remains far from complete. Under the 11 th National Plan Rastriya Madhyamic Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) has been launched to increase access to grade nine and above. This research monograph explores some of the key issues in managing the growth of secondary schooling. These include the constraints on expansion that arise from current levels of elementary school graduation, the costs and affordability of secondary schooling, the infrastructure needs, and increased teacher supply. Policy dialogue around secondary school expansion is a central concern if India is to close the gap between itself and China and other rapidly developing countries in educating most of its population beyond the elementary level