Lessons from Vermont: 132-Year-Old Voucher Program Rebuts Critics

For more than a century, Vermont has operated a viable and popular voucher system in 90 towns across the state. During the 1998-99 school year, the state paid tuition for 6,505 students in kindergarten through 12th grade to attend public and private schools. Families chose from a large pool of public schools and more than 83 independent schools including such well-known academies as Phillips Exeter and Holderness. As more attention is given to vouchers in mainstream discussions about education reform, critics contend that vouchers are a new, untested concept and therefore must be implemented, if at all, on an extremely limited, experimental basis. Critics also argue that vouchers will lead to the establishment of fringe schools, skim the best and brightest students from public schools, and drain public schools of revenue. Vermont's long-standing program has done none of those things. Vermont's voucher program has been running since 1869, nearly as long as the monopolistic public education model. It is worth noting that the voucher program has been a welcome part of the educational landscape for so long that the state collects no more information on voucher students than it does on students generally. And no hue and cry has been raised for more information to be compiled to justify the system's continuation. To the contrary, Vermonters generally assume that it is a parent's prerogative to select a child's school, and the burden of proof is on those who seek to take that choice away. This paper describes Vermont's voucher system and draws numerous lessons for education reformers and policymakers

On the local structure of doubly laced crystals

Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a Lie algebra all of whose regular subalgebras of rank 2 are type $A_{1}\times A_{1}$, $A_{2}$, or $C_{2}$, and let $B$ be a crystal graph corresponding to a representation of $\mathfrak{g}$. We explicitly describe the local structure of $B$, confirming a conjecture of Stembridge.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures First version used type $B_2$ crystals; current version uses type $C_2$ crystals. To appear in J. Comb. Theory, Ser.

The Failed Reform: Congressional Crackdown on Repeat Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Filers

After decades of lobbying to “get tough” on bankruptcy repeat filers, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). The Bankruptcy Code now requires that the automatic stay, which prevents creditors from pursuing the property of bankruptcy debtors, expires after thirty days for petitioners who file for bankruptcy within one year of a previously failed petition. Debtors can file a motion to extend the stay, but there is a presumption of a bad faith filing, only overcome if a debtor can show there has been a “substantial change in his or her financial or personal affairs” that makes discharge likely. Despite the Congressional focus on repeat filers, there has been little scholarly study of them. This study uses a national random sample to analyze post-BAPCPA repeat filers. I find that even post-BAPCPA, there is a significant number of repeat filers. Indeed, 14.7% of all bankruptcy petitions filed in 2007 were repeaters, and of Chapter 13 repeat filers, 69% filed a new petition within a year after a previous petition’s failure. Further, the strict new Congressional rules for repeat filers have effected little practical change: 98% of petitions to extend the automatic stay are granted, even though the majority of repeat filers provide no evidence of changed circumstances. Based on these findings, interviews with bankruptcy judges, trustees, and lawyers, and analysis of relevant case law, I explain why BAPCPA’s crack-down on repeat filers has effected little practical change, and argue that effectively tackling the refiler problem will likely require very different tactics than those employed in BAPCPA

Cultural Explorations of Human Intelligence Around the World

The goal of this article is to review cultural explorations of human intelligence around the globe. The article opens in the first part with a consideration of cultural studies that suggest that there is more to intelligence than IQ. It continues with the suggestion for what that more might be, namely, successful intelligence. The second part of the article thus describes the theory of successful intelligence, as well as data from various cultures that support the theory. The third part of the article considers cultural conceptions, of implicit theories of intelligence. It is concluded that cultural studies suggest that conventional notions of intelligence are narrow and limited

Race, Class, and Access to Civil Justice

After many years of inattention, policymakers are now focused on troubling statistics indicating that members of poor and minority groups are less likely than their higher-income counterparts to seek help when they experience a civil justice problem. Indeed, roughly three-quarters of the poor do not seek legal help when they experience a civil justice problem, and inaction is even more pronounced among poor blacks. Past work on access to civil justice largely relies on unconfirmed assumptions about the behavior patterns and needs of those experiencing civil justice problems. At a time when increased attention and resources are being devoted to questions of racial and socioeconomic access to civil justice, it is critical to understand the underlying causes of the disparities in justice utilization. This Article uses original, empirical data to provide novel explanations for these puzzling inaction statistics. The data reveal previously undetected connections that are crucial for creating effective access to justice policy. The Article shows how negative past experiences with, and perceptions of, the criminal justice system play a crucial role in decision-making about seeking help for civil justice problems. Further, this Article is the first to explore racial differences in civil justice utilization among the poor, and to explain how degree of trust is a key explanation for these racial differences. Based on the findings, the Article proposes a paradigm shift in how to shape access to justice policy