economics-schools

This book is an important book for our time. Everyone who is concerned about problems besetting the public schools should read this book. A main theme of the author is that schools will not improve unless we break up EFM, the "educational finance monopoly," and instead give more power to parents. The author lays out some powerful arguments. He shows how school choice is already working well in many places, including in several European countries, and in the USA. He points out that the G.I. Bill has produced the best higher education system in the world, but our K-12 system is one of the worst in the world. Opponents of school choice charge that it will increase extremism or racism, that the government will take over private schools, or that school choice will destroy public schools. This book addresses these and other charges, demonstrating clearly that they aren't valid, but are instead "smoke screen" arguments promoted by the educational establishment. This book also includes the actual proposal for the Washington D.C. voucher system passed by Congress this last year ('98), but vetoed by Bill Clinton. If you are thinking school choice might have some merit, but have not known what to make of the arguments against it, read this book. But be careful, like myself, you may decide to become active in getting your state to beat Florida in becoming the first state to adopt a school choice proposal. Another good book on this subject is "School Choice: Why You Need It, How You Get It," by David Harmer.

Fiscal Equalization for State and Local Government Finance. Edited by John E. Anderson. Westport, CN: Praeger Press, 1994. 207 pp.

In California, and most of the United States, the most salient public policy issue is concern over the quality of K-12 public education. Even so, there exists an ideological schism over what is the preferred course of reform. Politically conservative, and now popular, reforms involve injecting a dose of competitive choice into public schools. The reforms that are still favored by the politically liberal, but less by the public, are greater resources applied to public schools and the greater equalization of per-student spending across school districts. Professor Anderson's edited volume is devoted to a description and analysis of this second set of public school reforms; in particular, the equalization of local resources available to U.S. school districts. Since the changes necessary to improve the quality of U.S. public schools likely involve some mixture of the two types of reforms (competitive and fiscal), this 1994 book remains contemporary.

Fiscal equalization is the process through which state government reduces disparities in revenue sources used by local governments. Disparities in local revenue sources impact the quality of public school production in the U.S. because poor school districts must exert a greater tax effort (which they usually do not) to maintain the same level of per-student spending as a wealth district. For public schooling, the desired outcomes of fiscal equalization are a reduction in per-pupil spending differences across districts and a possible increase in average per-pupil spending.

In early 1993, with the support of the National Tax Association and the National Council of State Legislators, a group of academic authors and public policy practitioners gathered in Denver to discuss the seven papers that are included in this book. To bridge the usual gap between scholars and policymakers, the practitioners offered comments that have been incorporated into all the papers through a vigorous review process that was supervised by Anderson. The success of this editing process is evident throughout the book. Unlike many volumes of this type, the papers strike a nice balance between the requisite economic theory and statistical methodology, and the lucidity required for accessibility by the policymaker. Anderson should also be complimented on his choice of authors. The ten scholars included in this work are among the most well respected experts in state and local finance in the U.S.

All in all, this monograph of seven different papers is useful to all those interested in an accessible review of current academic thought on fiscal equalization. The papers offer valuable insights on how best to go about improving the quality of K-12 public education in the United States through a more equal distribution of resources across school districts. We can hope that books like this help the public and policymaker to see that such reforms are just as important as the now populist choices of charter schools and vouchers.

GREAT BOOK. I WOULD RECOMEND THIS BOOK TO ANY STUDENT INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT.

Lew Rockwell has compiled a fascinating collection of essays to add to the free-market apologia. Rockwell is the "dean" of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama, the fountainhead of paleolibertarianism. The Institute works to advance individual liberty and free-markets while promoting Judeo-Christian values.

This book, originally published in the late 1980's, contains a number of essays on a variety of issues from economists, scholars and free-market defenders. It features

luminaries of the Austrian school such as Mises, Reed, Rothbard, Skouson. Also, the paleolibertarian Congressman of Texas, Dr. Ron Paul offers his perspective in essays such as "The Coming World Bank" and "The Case for Free Trade." Moreover, Lew Rockwell, the editor, also offers some fresh perspectives.

Wide-ranging issues such as: banking, economic myths & fundamentals, fiat money vs. the gold standard, free trade vs. protectionism, privatization and socialism, etc. Plus a salute to the great economists of the Austrian school of economics.

Moreover, it seems this book has gone out-of-print. You might want to search for it on a used book search like half.com if you don't have any luck with Amazon's used book service. Though, I've seen it available every now and again.

Ken Gray has dared to challenge what we all have come to believe to be the "right" path for a student to follow after high school. The truth is that times have changed and the path to success no longer follows the same pattern it once did. I highly recommend this book for anyone who works in close contact with high school students. Many students go to college because they feel it's the only option... then drop out because it isn't for them. Ken Gray's book points to another option for helping these students to succeed.

I'm pleased to announce that Good News! has recently been nominated for the Beeman Award by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Good News! (from the Corwin Press web site) is:a book that gives specific step-by-step guidelines for successful school/public relations, especially for a school district employee that has been assigned the task but who has no background and training in public relations. Most districts do not have public information officers, and don't recognize the need for them, until a crisis hits (student harmed or killed, employee arrested, low test scores, press reports on failing and decaying schools), and the school or district is coping with damage control. And it never occurs to these same districts to effectively use PR to broadcast the "good" news, as a way of banking credits against future bad news. The book is unique because it used Bleiker's life preserver principles, employs the use of the Internet for strategic PR purposes, and is written so that an inexperienced person at a school/district can serve as the public relations specialist.

As a counselor in a Community College, I found this book to be an excellent example of ways in which our students could use their degrees. Many of the students at a two year college are not aware of what they could use their degrees for and this book helps to make them aware of their options.

I left large-firm corporate law practice for the public interest world after 12 long weeks - but if I had had this book, I probably would have been able to leave in six! Over the years I have offered lots of advice to other lawyers contemplating the same move -- but now I won't have to. I'll just direct them "To the Great Firm Escape." It has everything everyone needs to know to get out of that dreary law firm job, particularly overcoming the psychological hurdles, which are usually more daunting than the real ones. So stop complaining about your job - and buy this book!

There are now over 20 books in this Harvard Business Review series. All the books are compilations of the best articles from the Harvard Business Review magazine. This book is one of the best books in the series for the quality, relevance, and usefulness of the articles selected for inclusion.

The eight articles selected for this book are 'The Brand Report Card', 'Bringing a Dying Brand Back to Life', 'How to Fight a Price War', 'Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet', 'The Lure of Global Marketing', 'Are the Strategic Stars Aligned for Your Corporate Brand', 'Torment Your Customers (They'll Love It), and 'Boost Your Marketing ROI with Experimental Design'.

My favorite article was the first one 'The Brand Report Card'. This article in just a few pages cuts to the core of how to evaluate the strength of your brand using a very logical approach.

The article on Contextual Marketing about the Internet is very interesting since it was written in late 2000 and makes predictions about how the Internet will change by the end of 2003 to 2005. But even the basic predictions haven't come true regarding how ubiquitous the authors predict the Internet will become. Yes, we have access to the Internet through wireless devices but they are not very profitable for businesses right now. Of course, the current economic conditions are influencing the predictions quite significantly.

Overall, this is indeed an excellent collection of articles relating to Marketing and the book is priced well since it is far more expensive to buy the same collection of articles directly from Harvard Business Review online (almost 5 times more expensive).

I have been reading several books on marketing over the last few years to apply in my small business and this book is one of the best I have read. It is less than 200 pages long and makes for a very quick yet powerful read. Enjoy reading and benefiting from the book!

I've just finished reading Stephanie Lowell's Careers in the Nonprofit Sector. I recommend it highly. Almost every page contains a profile about someone working with nonprofits. Lowell supports these profiles with thorough discussions of how to find work in nonprofits, why work for nonprofits, and what nonprofits are like.

About half of the book categorizes the nonprofits. I found these the most useful sections. They subdivide each sector, list the hot topics, discuss the roles for MBAs, present profiles, and provide addresses and web sites.

There is two recurring themes: the rewards of working for nonprofits and the importance of volunteering. Everyone working for a nonprofit or wanting to work for a nonprofit should read this book.