THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EMILY Lessons from Legislative Battles over Forced School Consolidation

Pressure to force or induce the consolidation of rural schools through legislation is common across the United States. Whereas consolidation was once chiefly about school improvement, today it is more likely to be about fiscal savings. Legislative battles have produced many lessons for rural school advocates which are discussed here. Consolidation is also on the agenda of many of the school reform movements at work in the United States, many of which see rural schools as too numerous, too attached to the communities they serve, and too democratically managed to reform from without. As reformers grapple with the resistance to reform in many rural community schools, they assume the haughty and arrogant style of the fading English aristocracy that Oscar Wilde lampooned in The Importance of Being Earnest. The essay closes with a caricature of the education reform aristocracy attributing to it some of the sentiments expressed by Wilde\u27s pompous characters

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EMILY Lessons from Legislative Battles over Forced School Consolidation

Pressure to force or induce the consolidation of rural schools through legislation is common across the United States. Whereas consolidation was once chiefly about school improvement, today it is more likely to be about fiscal savings. Legislative battles have produced many lessons for rural school advocates which are discussed here. Consolidation is also on the agenda of many of the school reform movements at work in the United States, many of which see rural schools as too numerous, too attached to the communities they serve, and too democratically managed to reform from without. As reformers grapple with the resistance to reform in many rural community schools, they assume the haughty and arrogant style of the fading English aristocracy that Oscar Wilde lampooned in The Importance of Being Earnest. The essay closes with a caricature of the education reform aristocracy attributing to it some of the sentiments expressed by Wilde\u27s pompous characters

Equitable and Adequate Funding for Rural Schools: Ensuring Equal Educational Opportunity for All Students

Since the early 1970s, state court litigation has been brought in forty-six of the fifty states, with plaintiffs asserting legal claims under state equal protection and education clauses. These lawsuits were prompted by various factors. In many southern states, inequities in school funding are vestiges of formerly racially segregated school systems outlawed in Brown v. Board of Education. Heavy reliance by states on local property assessments and taxes to pay for education is also the cause of inequities leading to litigation. Taxpayer resistance to spending on education has been another cause. Nearly all of the recent court cases involving financing of school facilities had their origins in rural states or in the rural areas of larger states. This special edition of the Nebraska Law Review is therefore intended to fill an important gap in legal scholarship by reviewing school finance law as it relates to rural education. When courts explicitly address rural concerns and find for rural plaintiffs, they are serving the time-honored judicial role of protector of the more vulnerable citizens in a democracy

Minimal-invasive Percutaneous Reduction and Transsacral Screw Fixation for U-shaped Fractures

STUDY DESIGN Technical note and case series. OBJECTIVE To introduce an innovative minimal-invasive surgical procedure reducing surgery time and blood loss in management of U-shaped sacrum fractures. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND Despite their seldom appearance, U-shaped fractures can cause severe neurological deficits and surgical management difficulties. According to the nature of the injury normally occurring in multi-injured patients after a fall from height, a jump, or road traffic accident, U-shaped fractures create a spinopelvic dissociation and hence are highly unstable. In the past, time-consuming open procedures like large posterior constructs or shortening osteotomies with or without decompression were the method of choice, sacrificing spinal mobility. Insufficient restoration of sacrococcygeal angle and pelvic incidence with conventional techniques may have adverse long-term effects in these patients. METHODS In a consecutive series of 3 patients, percutaneous reduction of the fracture with Schanz pins inserted in either the pedicles of L5 or the S1 body and the posterior superior iliac crest was achieved. The Schanz pins act as lever, allowing a good manipulation of the fracture. The reduction is secured by a temporary external fixator to permit optimal restoration of pelvic incidence and sacral kyphosis. Insertion of 2 transsacral screws allow fixation of the restored spinopelvic alignment. RESULTS Anatomic alignment of the sacrum was possible in each case. Surgery time ranged from 90 to 155 minutes and the blood loss was <50 mL in all 3 cases. Two patients had very good results in the long term regarding maintenance of pelvic incidence and sacrococcygeal angle. One patient with previous cauda equina decompression had loss of correction after 6 months. CONCLUSIONS Percutaneous reduction and transsacral screw fixation offers a less invasive method for treating U-shaped fractures. This can be advantageous in treatment of patients with multiple injuries