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The article presents a study of the fiscal consolidation and rules in Switzerland and Sweden, which are considered as the most effective rules in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. It explores the support for the Swiss debt strategy, while support for expenditure limit in Sweden appears to erode, providing lessons for other countries like the U.S. in terms of fiscal-rule and implementation strategies.

The article discusses U.S. state fiscal policies for economic growth and budget stabilization and economic reforms that address economic stress. The authors apply an economic scoring analysis to budget policies in California, Utah, and Montana. It examines fluctuations in the U.S. economy, tax and expenditure limits (TELs), and capital expenditures.

In this article, the author reflects on the article "Rethinking the Market Metaphor: School Choice, the Common Good, and the National Football League" by the philosophers Brent Beal and Heather Olson Beal. He states that National Football League (NFL) addresses the shortcomings of funding processes of the U.S. He highlights the impact of schooling system on economic efficiency of the U.S. He mentions that the article depicts widening differences between the highest and lowest income groups.

The article explores the local economic impact of a ten-year school choice scholarship program called the Edgewood Voucher Program (EVP), implemented in the Edgewood Independent School District (EISD) of San Antonio, Texas and taking place between 1998 and 2008. The program was implemented by the Children's Educational Opportunity (CEO) Foundation. The authors discuss the immediate effects of the EVP on economic development in the school district, including housing values and growth, business formation and the property tax base.

Legislators considering large scale school choice proposals want information on more than likely schooling outcomes. They look to their fiscal bureaus and economic studies to provide that information. The fiscal notes that must accompany all proposals with revenue or expenditure implications are especially important. Often, fiscal notes must be produced on short notice. The article assesses the fiscal notes that have accompanied the major U.S. charter law and tuition voucher proposals, and to highlight key issues and research needs it assesses fiscal and economic impacts of the proposed Texas (2011–HB 33) tuition voucher program. We assess fiscal notes in terms of research basis for predictions, predicted level of participation (# of choosers), and predicted basis for fiscal impacts, including time trend of effects. Finally, we propose how the fiscal notes might be improved; not just what legislative analysts should do, but also what could be done to make doing a better job easier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A special tabulation of individual student scores from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test allowed a ranking of Texas schools according to test score changes (“value added”). The rankings varied greatly by student subpopulation. That is, the vast majority of schools are much more effective with some kinds of students than others. The implied comparative advantages suggest possibly large academic gains just from indicated student movement, even among unchanged, traditional, “comprehensively uniform” public schools, perhaps through well-informed public school choice. Further gains from specialization are also implied by the results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Freedom of any kind has intrinsic value, and education freedom is controversial, in need of empirical assessment of possible and likely trade-offs between freedom from state control and social goals such as equity and cohesion. Without a reasonable empirical measure of education freedom we can only cite the controversies and choose sides. The growing interest in likely effects of new school system governance structures, especially those that promise increased competition in school systems, would benefit from an objective, quantitative assessment of education freedom, a key element of competitiveness. The key institutional factors that this article measures and combines into an education freedom index are entry barriers, price control, opportunity to specialize (product differentiation), uncertainty about the future scope of the market, and availability of information. Quantification facilitates discussion of the key factors' relative importance, the main components of each, and potential factor interdependence. The formulation of a numerical index raises issues such as the conflicting objectives of index simplicity versus index reality, including proper sensitivity to all of the factors that would theoretically affect the level of freedom and competition, and the nature of market forces and other factors that would dictate schooling practices in the absence of regulation or direct state production. Likewise, the desire to maximize the empirical basis of index components, and to minimize the role of subjective judgment, weighs heavily in the creation of the index demonstrated with data for 2 Canadian provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every school-age child in San Antonio's Edgewood school district was eligible for a large, privately-funded tuition voucher from 1998 to 2008. This paper evaluates the impact of this voucher program on residential property values in the Edgewood district. Based on realtor data (multiple listing service), the findings reveal that during the period of the voucher program there was a 9.87% increase in house prices during the early years of the program, although an increase of only 1.10% during the later years when eligibility requirements were tightened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the annual international school choice and reform academic conference to be held on January 14-17, 2012 in Florida, and also invites papers to be presented during this conference.

Benefiting from new data provided by experimental economists, behavioral economics is now moving beyond empirical tests of standard behavioral assumptions to the problem of designing improved institutions that are tuned to fit real-world behavior. It is therefore worthwhile to consider the potential for new experiments to advance school choice debates and the daunting task of institutional reform. Deciding which new institutions to introduce and test is an important scientific question. New institutional alternatives are, however, by definition, untested, and empirical arguments to guide this process are difficult to construct without adding more layers of theoretical assumptions. This article analyzes normative criteria that can be used when introducing new institutions for delivering school services. Because of the long time-frames for testing the effects of new institutions and the extraordinarily high stakes for children and families who participate in such experiments, performance metrics that are normally uncontroversial, such as cost minimization, will likely be insufficient for justifying the introduction of new institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merrifield (2009) provides a useful polemic about the sad state of data analysis too frequently encountered in the school choice literature. Available data come from limited policy experiments with only modest amounts of choice and competition. The effects of very modest changes in school choice on school performance are, as one might expect, small and often not statistically different from zero. Those who study school reform initiatives mistakenly extrapolate from these null effects of small policy shifts to make sweeping predictions about the ineffectiveness of broader policy shifts aimed at expanding choice and competition through creation of new institutions governing the supply of educational services. In debates about how to interpret the existing evidential record and what our priorities for collecting more empirical information about the performance of different educational institutions should be, it is difficult to cleanly separate theoretical priors from empirical evidence. Virtually all empirical investigations rely on theoretical priors to motivate the design and measurement of particular effects. However, Merrifield's call for improved empiricism is worthwhile because it can accelerate the coevolution of researchers' theoretical priors and the accumulated evidential record. I suggest that the empirics of school choice would benefit greatly from separating the issues of state subsidization of education, regulatory mandates for achieving performance goals, and the institutions—private or public—that actually deliver educational services. Furthermore, a more rigorously empirical research agenda can advance school choice debates by squarely addressing six potential pitfalls based on economic theory that arise when attempting to move toward decentralized private provision of educational services. More detailed definitions of competition together with bold, new empirical evidence are clear priorities for school choice research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of existing best practices cannot determine whether the current “best” schooling practices could be even better, less costly, or more effective and/or improve at a faster rate, but we can discover a cost effective menu of schooling options and each item's minimum cost through market accountability experiments. This paper describes experiments that would create opportunities for market entry and a price system to signal cost and quality benchmarks (current minimum costs) to families and educators to produce information for policymakers. The entry-price system combination has a great economy-wide track record because it harnesses highly dispersed knowledge about schooling practices and exploits self-interest through opportunities to compete. States or school districts can employ one of four possible market accountability experiments to assess what families want from among the schooling options educators prove to be willing to offer and at what cost: (a) large tax credits or a large universal voucher, (b) school district vouchers, (c) competitive contracting out of school management, and (d) charter law adjustments. This paper describes and compares those four ways to discover a cost-effective menu of schooling options and how much each costs, certainly a key element of one of the biggest policy challenges of our times, drastically improving the performance and efficiency of our K-12 system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one on the achievement gap, one on school policy making and one on school choice.

The article presents an analysis of various public school reform options, focusing on student performance in the U.S. for kindergarten through 12th grade. An overview of related previous research is provided, and several existing models which allow for estimates of the impact of independent variables on student performance are cited. The results derived from the input of best-case scenarios into these models are quantified in terms of National Assessment of Education Progress scores. None of the models indicated that significant educational improvements could be achieved within the existing parameters of the educational system, even under optimal conditions. This is said to indicate that more systemic reform is necessary if significant performance increases are to be achieved.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one on the prominent school choice activists and scholars in the U.S. and another on the cost and benefits of the types of school choice targeting.

Pressing questions about the merits of market accountability in K-12 education have spawned a large scholarly literature. Unfortunately, much of that literature is of limited relevance, and much of it is misleading. The studies most widely cited in the United States used intense scrutiny of a few small-scale, restriction-laden U.S. school choice programs, and a handful of larger, but still restriction-laden foreign school choice expansions, to assert general conclusions about the effects of “choice,” “competition,” and “markets.” The most intensely studied programs lack most or all of the key elements of market systems, including profit, price change, market entry, and product differentiation—factors that are normally central to any discussion of market effects. The school choice literature is partly driven by a self-fulfilling prophesy. Large steps toward full-blown market accountability are widely seen as too radical to be worthy of study, especially in the absence of directly relevant data. The studies of small-scale school choice programs soft-pedal the large differences between the choices available now and those that could be available under conditions that are the norm in most of the economy and then compound the political feasibility problem by connecting market terminology to the modest effects of the small-scale programs. To address the need for credible evidence of effects of genuine education markets, scholars should look to simulation models, indirect evidence such as outcomes in similar industries, and school systems abroad that enjoy varying degrees of market accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses reports published within the issue, including one on specific policy approach to school choice and another on the public school effects of school choice programs.

Pressing questions about the merits of full-fledged market accountability in K-12 education, and more limited choice programs, have spawned a large scholarly literature. This article assesses what we know from the most prominent studies and the importance of those findings to school system reform discussions. The studies most widely cited in the United States based their findings on small-scale, restriction-laden U.S. programs, and a handful of larger, but still restriction-laden, foreign school choice programs. The extensive restrictions and small size of those programs make them virtually irrelevant to the widely acknowledged transformational change imperative. Because the most intensely studied programs lack most, and sometimes all, of the key elements of market systems, such as profit, price change, market entry, and product differentiation, they don't help us determine whether unleashing market forces will produce more desired than undesired effects. However, absence of the key elements of market systems did not stop numerous analysts from stating conclusions about "markets," and "competition." So we know a lot about some of the policy approaches to increased school choice, but little about many policy approaches, and less than many people think we know. We know the most about programs and policies too limited in scope to yield much insight into reform policies capable of addressing the transformation imperative implied by the repeatedly alleged "nation at risk" problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one regarding school choice targeting, one regarding on tuition copayment and another one regarding on publication process.

The article discusses the importance of school choices in attaining core knowledge. The author claims that the opportunity in choicing schools may cause much more widespread use of the core knowledge curriculum. It says that core knowledge, which is founded by E. D. Hirsch Jr., is an educational program that prescribes fact-based, step by step instruction. Core knowledge builds on previously acquired, relevant knowledge, to give children a vital basis of genreal information to help them succeed in school and in life. In addition, core knowledge has a very specific curriculum.

There is much interest in the effects of a larger parental role in schooling issues. That role can exist through voice--direct parental involvement in schools and participation in the political process that dictates schooling policies--or through choice from a menu of schooling options. This article addresses the limited understanding and confusion about the latter. The availability of genuine choice varies greatly with the policies (or lack thereof) aimed at expanding it. This article identifies the twelve ways to increase the availability and the affordability of schooling options and discusses the significant attributes of each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that increased specialization by schools either in what is taught or how it is taught has significant policy ramifications. Details of how the proposed specialized schooling options can help academic researchers improve their education models, especially proposals that would establish a competitive education industry in the U.S.; Essential elements of a competitive education industry; Benefits of launching specialization programs based on learning-style differences in schools; Factors that hinder public schools from launching specialization programs.

Focuses on the concept of the competitive education industry (CEI) in the U.S. and the reasons behind the need for it to be scrutinized. Key elements of a competitive education industry; Arguments raised against the CEI concept; Other issues on CEI that should be addressed.

Introduces a series of articles on education.

This study describes the synthesis and characterization of thiol-grafted chitosan beads for use as mercury (Hg) adsorbents. Chitosan flakes were dissolved and formed into spherical beads using a phase inversion technique, then crosslinked to improve their porosity and chemical stability. Cysteine was grafted onto the beads in order to improve the adsorption affinity of Hg to the beads. The beads possessed an average diameter of 3.2 mm, porosity of 0.9, specific surface area of ∼100 m2/g, average pore size of ∼120 Å, and specific gravity of 2.0. Equilibrium and kinetic uptake experiments were conducted to study the uptake of Hg by the beads. The adsorption capacity was approximately 8.0 mmol-Hg/g-dry beads at pH 7, and decreased with decreasing pH. Hg adsorption kinetics was modeled as radial pore diffusion into a spherical bead with nonlinear adsorption. Use of the nonlinear Freundlich isotherm in the diffusion equation allowed modeling of the uptake kinetics with a single tortuosity factor of 1.5±0.3 as the fitting parameter for all initial Hg concentrations, chitosan loadings, and agitation rates. At agitation rates of 50 and 75 rpm, where uptake rate was reduced significantly due to the boundary layer effect, the mass transfer coefficient at the outside boundary was also used as a fitting parameter to model the kinetic data. At agitation rates higher than 150 rpm, pore diffusion was the rate-limiting step. The beads exhibited a high initial uptake rate followed by a slower uptake rate suggesting pore diffusion as the rate-determining step especially at high agitation rates. Higher uptake rates observed in this study compared to those in a previous study of chitosan-based crab shells indicate that dissolution and gel formation increase the porosity and pore accessibility of chitosan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Discusses the consequences of the voucher program which began in the Edgewood District of San Antonio, Texas in 1998. Comparison of the voucher program with other U.S. voucher programs; Background on the establishment of the voucher program; Eligibility for the voucher program; Issues that must be addressed with regard to the education system in the state.

This paper sheds additional light on the important issue of toxic accidental releases, or spills. The pollution control literature contains relatively little discussion of accidental releases. Even risk assessments are more about the risks to the public of predictable continuous emissions than about the risk of major accidents. Because spills of stored and transported chemicals are not continuous, or even inevitable, analogs of economic incentive approaches like emissions fees and transferable pollution allowances are inappropriate. Allowances are inappropriate because potential spills are often too harmful to allow, and a fee large enough to pay for clean-up and damages is beyond the means of many potential sources. The accidental release threat suggests an approach analogous to automobile liability insurance. Since a car can do more damage than most people can afford to pay for, states mandate insurance to ensure financial responsibility. Some potential sources of harmful spills are already required to demonstrate financial responsibility, and more could be. Insurance is one option for meeting financial responsibility requirements; in many cases, the only viable option. To develop testable hypotheses and determine where traditional partial equilibrium analyses would probably be misleading, the paper compares a very basic insurance bonding approach to the traditional command-and-control approach in a general equilibrium setting. That allows a comparison of effectiveness, and impacts on output levels, prices, and factor returns. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on the school-choice controversy in the United States. Attributes of poor educational outcomes; Arguments concerning parental choice; Consideration of school-choice options; Child-centered public funding; Government's operation of schools; Factors that dominate the parental-choice debate; Competition as the key to improvement in the school system; Evaluations of the choice options.

Explores the transition of groundwater resources from free capture to allocation mechanism in Texas. Economic and political issues regarding the transition of groundwater allocation; Characteristics of an efficient groundwater allocation; Presentation of various means in addressing the transition issues of groundwater resources.

Focuses on the computation and usage of neoclassical economic-base marginal multiplier formula. Estimates of economic parameters; Effects of the source of exogenous stimulus on the size of the multiplier; Differences between the multiplier based on exogenous factor-price changes and the multiplier based on output-price changes.

Focuses on the general mathematical equivalency of economic base (EB) and aggregate input-output multipliers. Implication of economic activity for regional scientists; Differences between EB and input-output model; Inclusion of the indirect exports in the basic sector.

Focuses on the Keynesian export base theory of the economy. Development of a general equilibrium model to define the components of an economic base multiplier; Cause of interregional labor movements; Determinants of factor and relative commodity prices.

Assesses the impact of rapid growth due to the boomtown or the energy development phenomenon in the United States and the appropriate measures to mitigate the impact of the rapid growth. Social problems associated with boomtowns; Characteristics of three classes of impact projection models; Applicability of the general types of models to boomtowns; Strategies for coping with funding problems.

In this article, the author reflects on an article by Anna J. Egaliteon, a research associate at the University of Arkansas, on the impact of school voucher programs and assessment of productivity of market-based educational reforms in the U.S. It highlights the development of market-based schooling policies to increase student achievement in public schools. He concerns about the effect of school choice program in creating a level playing field between public and private schooling options.

The article presents information on editorial policies of the journal and also presents brief information on the Second Annual School Choice and Reform International Academic Conference to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 18-21, 2013.

In this article, the author discusses several issues related to the journal. The journal has got a third sponsor, the E. G. West Institute for Effective Schooling (WIES). The 2009 WIES assessment of the 1998-2008 Edgewood Voucher Program that provides educational vouchers to residents of Edgewood district in the U.S. has found significant, immediate economic development effects on that area. The assessment has found that since any families moved to Edgewood to become voucher eligible there has been an increase in the business activity in that area. A list of educational issues as discussed in the previous issues of the journal is also included.

In this article the author discusses the changes made to the format of the journal. He announces the change in the third word of the subtitle of the journal's title from 'practices' to 'reform' that signifies the school reform strategies. He requests for the feedback on previous articles from the readers and informs about the new topics including the one on random assignment and gold standard. The author presents the details of issues requiring attention like School choice and size.

The article offers the author's perspective on the commentary made by Mark Holmes to the article "Imagined Evidence and False Imperatives." He cites the smashing success brought by the comments and comments that those conclusions by Holmes would also mean a safer to assume a high level of misunderstanding among scholars of different fields. The author clarifies the issue on the limited exploration of school choice and some market-oriented schooling policies by stressing that the consensus definition of equity when it comes to the opportunity of schooling is expected to restrict policies' design that is too much dependent on market accountability.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue regarding public school effects of school choice programs, the costs and benefits of school choice program and tuition copayment.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including tuition copayment and stratification.

The author reflects on his six years as editor of the "Journal of School Choice." He expresses his gratitude to his editorial team particularly associate editor Vance Randall and Mark Holmes, who provided insightful commentary on every peer-reviewed manuscript of the journal. He also reflects on his connection with Myron Lieberman, who was responsible for his decision to enter the school choice and school system reform research arena.

The article offers information on conferences of the "Journal of School Choice," which include First Annual International School Choice and Reform International Academic Conference in Florida in 2012 and the Second Annual International School Choice and Reform Academic Conference in Utah in 2013.

The article offers information on the First International School Choice and Reform Academic Conference to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 14-17, 2012.

The article pays tribute to David W. Kirkpatrick, a U.S. Freedom Foundation senior fellow on education.

The article presents the authors views on the "Journal of School Choice." He mentions that the nascent E. G. West Institute for Effective Schooling (WIES) is the third new sponsor of the journal. He highlights the impact of school choice on separation/stratification of students by socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity. He refers to the annotated list of school choice research issues available at the journal's Web site.

The author reflects on the "Journal of School Choice." He reports that the word "reform" has been added to the subtitle of the journal. He presents a list of list of choice-based approaches to bring a reform to the perspective of the journal. He also provides a web site location where the readers can find the previous issue alerts in "Editor's Tab" section. He reports that in "Editor's tab," on could find detailed description about topics of educational reforms.

In this article, the author discusses the changes and developments in the forthcoming issues of the journal. He says that about one of the four annual editions of the journal will be partial theme issues. He says that the new special alerts section in the journal will lead and dominate these initial pages most of the time and some past vision and policy statements related to education will reappear at the end of these pages for several editions. He also discusses several issues including the influence of deployments of school choice on the operations of new and existing schools and systemwide policies that include governance and funding for schools.

The article focuses on the CEO Horizon, 1998-2008, Edgewood Tuition Voucher Program funded by the organization, CEO Foundation. The tuition vouchers were for the Edgewood Independent School District (EISD), Bexar County, Texas residents from 1998 to 2008. All the applicants who met the district residency requirement got vouchers through the sixth year, 2003-2004. It has been found that the voucher program had significant positive impacts on single and multifamily housing numbers and market value, commercial development, and EISD test scores.

The article presents a tribute to Mark Holmes, a Canada-based senior education scholar. Holmes is known for his book "The Reformation of Canada's Schools," which is highly informative on education policy reform. The editor of the journal states that the appointment of Holmes into the Editorial Board turned out to be a great move. Holmes along with parents and teachers formed in June 1991 the Organization for Quality Education (OQE), which then turned into the Society for Quality Education (SQE) ten years later.