Should the Federal Government Be Involved in School Accountability?

Why the Federal Government Should Be Involved in School Accountability

Improving the education of children living in poverty.

Richard Murnane observes that the American ideal of equality of educational opportunity has for years been more the rhetoric than the reality of the nation's political life. Children living in poverty, he notes, tend to be concentrated in low-performing schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. They are likely to leave school without the skills needed to earn a decent living in a rapidly changi...

Political Context of Education Finance in the United States

The political landscape in school finance has undergone significant changes in the United States in recent years. It was only a generation ago that the state government assumed the primary funding responsibility in public schools, public agencies at the state and local level “monopolized” service delivery, and many reform initiatives did not consider student achievement as the key measure of ac...

The Canada Health Act Does Not Apply to Prescription Drugs

Abstract There are strong arguments that national catastrophic drug insurance should be established in Canada with assistance from the federal government. The author of this paper projects the long-run program costs for two proposals for such a program: that of the Kirby Committee and that of the Romanow Commission. He concludes that both the annual program costs to the federal government and t...

Understanding Internal Accountability in Nigeria’s Routine Immunization System: Perspectives From Government Officials at the National, State, and Local Levels

Background Routine immunization coverage in Nigeria has remained low, and studies have identified a lack of accountability as a barrier to high performance in the immunization system. Accountability lies at the heart of various health systems strengthening efforts recently launched in Nigeria, including those related to immunization. Our aim was to understand the views of health officials on th...