<p> Voters&rsquo; hatred of the property tax has led to the enactment of tax and expenditure limitations (TEL) in most states (Brunori, Bell, Cordes, and Yuan, 2008; Sokolow, 1998). Past research suggests that TELs have consequences for school districts, such as reductions in revenue and expenditures, and that these effects may be felt disproportionately by districts that are less able to adapt, such as poorer districts (Figlio, 1998; Joyce and Mullins, 1996; Downes and Figlio, 1999; Mullins, 2004; Wallin and Zabel, 2011; Della Sala and Knoeppel, 2014; Arsen, DeLuca, Ni, and Bates, 2016; Steinberg and Quinn, 2015). Such disproportionate impacts may increase revenue inequity across districts, further widening the gap between the &ldquo;haves&rdquo; and &ldquo;have nots.&rdquo; </p><p> This dissertation explores the impacts of TELs on school district revenue and equity through analyses of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Act 1, a useful case for studying these effects because it was enacted more recently&mdash;2006&mdash;and is in place in a diverse state with a heavy reliance on property tax revenue that faces ongoing concerns over its allegedly inequitable public education funding system. </p><p> In the first study, I use multivariate regression analyses with fixed effects to consider the effects of Act 1 on various revenue sources available to school districts and whether districts that may be less able to adjust to changes in revenue streams felt these effects disproportionately. I find that local revenue and property tax revenue were reduced for school districts subject to Act 1&rsquo;s tax limits compared to those not subject to them, and that state revenue did not offset these reductions, resulting in reductions in total revenue. My findings do not suggest that these effects were disproportionately felt by districts with greater needs. </p><p> In the second study, I consider the characteristics of districts that are able to avoid Act 1&rsquo;s tax limits. Using logistic regression with year fixed effects, I find that districts with better fiscal conditions were more likely to receive an exception from the state that allowed them to avoid the tax limit. These results raise concerns of potential inequity, albeit with no intent on the part of the districts or Pennsylvania officials. </p><p> In the third study, I use both descriptive and multivariate regression analyses to consider the impacts of Act 1&rsquo;s limits on revenue equity among districts. I find that Act 1&rsquo;s tax limits appear to have reduced revenue equity among districts, and to have had a differential effect on higher need districts, when using poverty as an indicator of need. </p><p> Taken together, the findings suggest that Act 1 may have both reduced funding and revenue equity among districts, and had a differential negative effect on revenue for higher poverty districts. These results therefore suggest that the tax limits may have somewhat widened the divide between the &ldquo;haves&rdquo; and &ldquo;have nots,&rdquo; and raise concerns that revenue equity among districts has been reduced and that districts better able to adjust to tax limits&mdash;those in better fiscal health&mdash;may also be those most likely to avoid them.</p><p>

<p> Across the United States, at least 1,600 local governments in 40 states have enacted stormwater fees since the mid-1960s. Many of these local governments enacted stormwater fees to finance costly infrastructure upgrades required by increasingly stringent federal and state regulation of stormwater systems and combined sewer overflows. The sustained spread of stormwater fees across the United States over the past five decades reflects a significant shift of fiscal responsibility for operating, maintaining, and improving key public infrastructure systems to the local level. This dissertation investigates the emergence, diffusion, and form of stormwater fees enacted by local governments in the United States over the past 50 years. Structured by several theoretical frameworks and utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this research identifies key vertical and horizontal intergovernmental dynamics influencing the enactment of stormwater fees by local governments across the country. While underscoring the strong influence that federal and state regulation of municipal stormwater systems has played in popularizing stormwater fees among local governments in the United States, my research also highlights the crucial role that state-level statutory law, case law, and administrative approaches have had on expanding or contracting the options local governments have for implementing stormwater fees individually within their own jurisdictions and collectively across metropolitan regions. My case studies of stormwater fee form suggest that the challenges to broadly scoped collective action characterizing stormwater management and finance in highly fragmented metropolitan regions may present transaction cost barriers too high to be surmounted without coercive intervention from a higher level of government, but that collective action of more limited scope can be achieved in relatively self-organized manner. This research also demonstrates the enduring and important role that consulting firms and professional industry associations have played in influencing stormwater fee enactment by local governments across the United States over the past half-century.</p><p>

<p> This thesis describes how politics shape vulnerability to climate change at the local level, based on an ethnography in Cortez, Florida. Focusing on a &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; commercial fishing village on the Florida Gulf Coast, my research indicates that such vulnerabilities are created at multiple scales of the nexus between governance and commerce. Moreover, a key finding is that, as a community closely linked to the health of local environments, the village in Cortez is largely organized to protect their commercial industry from regional economic overdevelopment; not in recognition of its role in contributing to global climate change, but because such overdevelopment is perceived as unjust and destructive to local environments. Further, through qualitatively examining the environmental values of a &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; fishing community located in a large metropolitan coastal area, my thesis confronts the responsibility that broader society may have to reevaluate economic growth in effort to truly foster sustainability and justice. Finally, the thesis describes how communities like Cortez may be repositories for locally developed, ecologically grounded resilience strategies, rendering their voice all the more crucial, beyond conventional stakeholder approaches, in public discussions about regional economic development and marine resource management. </p><p>

<p> The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires tax-exempt hospitals to conduct Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every three years, formulate implementation strategies, and report yearly to the IRS and the public the progress of their work. The IRS CHNA incentivizes hospitals to provide programs responsive to community health needs. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between community benefit programs and prioritized community health needs in the context of a national IRS reporting requirement through analysis of published community benefit reports among North Carolina&rsquo;s (NC) tax-exempt hospitals. </p><p> This study employed quantitative research that analyzed longitudinal and cross-sectional data; qualitative research that reviewed published documents; and mixed-methods research that analyzed the integrated quantitative and qualitative results. The findings indicate that performing IRS-mandated CHNA did not substantially increase the alignment of community benefit programs with prioritized community health needs but did clearly highlight those needs. NC tax-exempt hospitals continue to focus on providing patient care financial assistance than population health, a strategy misaligned with community health needs. Although the hospitals are beginning to address population health and access to care concerns, their dollar expenditures in these areas paled in comparison to patient care financial assistance. If the IRS&rsquo; purpose in mandating CHNA was to spur a shift in community benefit priorities toward population health needs and away from the traditional patient care financial assistance, then, the evidence from 4 years after the requirement&rsquo;s implementation, indicates it is currently failing in North Carolina. As elucidated in the articles, their ingrained patient-level intervention perspective and desire to recover high unreimbursed costs or lost revenues for providing care to Medicare, Medicaid, and poor patients likely influence the hospitals&rsquo; community benefit programming to favor individual welfare over population health. Nevertheless, policymakers should continue to direct community benefit programs toward population health because it is a step in the right direction. Organizational change takes time and the desired results of policy interventions are usually incremental. Thus, conducting CHNA must remain a legal obligation by non-profit hospitals for maintaining their privileged tax status to facilitate organizational paradigm shift in community benefit programming toward population health programs or community building activities and away from individual welfare.</p><p>

<p> President Barak Obama set a national agenda to increase the number of higher education degrees completed in the United States. Moore, Shulock, and Jensen reported that the U.S. is projected to produce 48 million new undergraduates between the years 2005 to 2025. Additionally. Moore, Shulock, and Jensen reported that due to their population, California Community Colleges have a significant role in producing baccalaureate degrees than any other state. However, California projections have shown a shortfall of 1 million college graduates by the year 2025. One strategy for addressing this shortfall is improving the transfer pathways for community college students. The Student Transfer Achievement Reform (STAR) Act provided community college students in California with a clearer path towards transfer with the caveat of completing a newly established associate degree for transfer. Implementation of the STAR Act coerced California Community Colleges into adopting a standard curriculum model for transfer degrees. </p><p> This quantitative study used within-subject ANCOVAs to analyze a multi-year period of degree completion and transfer data to determine if STAR Act significantly impacted community college outcomes. Program awards and CSU transfer were dependent variables used to statistically analyze the impact of the STAR Act on community colleges. Median county income, college size, regional college location, and the number of transfer degrees offered were grouping variables used to help determine if the STAR Act impacted all colleges or only colleges with certain institutional demographics. </p><p> Institutional Theory was used to contextualize the impact of the STAR Act on community college degree completion and transfer rates. DiMaggio and Powell identified three categories of conformity within institutional theory: normative conformity, mimic conformity, and coercive conformity. Each category aligns the action of conforming to either norms, values, or ideologies. </p><p> Implications for this study address the role state legislation and individuality of community colleges in education reform. Recommendations for research and practice propose that normative and coercive attributes of conformity support significant institutional changes. Community colleges are encouraged to incorporate normative and coercive standards to support new initiatives and programs effectively. At the same time, community colleges must embrace individuality and limit mimic conformity.</p><p>

This study is concerned with the geographical distribution of the provision of nursery education in England and Wales from 1981 to 1994. It examines the extent to which the provision of nursery education is related to the need for the service. Davies's (1968) concept of territorial justice implies a positive correlation between need and provision. This interpretation of territorial justice is well established in the academic literature on the distribution of public services. Boyne and Powell (1991) have questioned whether a positive correlation between need and provision is always required for territorial justice. The key issue, it has been argued, is the requirement to consider the dimensions of need and service provision. This study assesses the validity of Boyne and Powell's (1991) analysis and builds substantially on its foundation A new set of criteria for the assessment of territorial justice is developed. These are presented as the alternative to the Davies (1968) criterion of territorial justice. Territorial justice is more appropriately concerned with 'equal provision for relevant dimensions of need'. The criteria for the evaluation of territorial justice developed in this study are applied to nursery education. The correlations provide a mixture of evidence of territorial justice and injustice in the quantity of service provision, together with territorial injustice in the quality of service. The Davies (1968) criterion of territorial justice would have indicated greater territorial justice in the provision of nursery education than that found using the new criteria. This study contributes at two levels to previous literature on territorial justice: a new method is used to assess territorial justice and new evidence on territorial justice within nursery education provision in England and Wales is presented. Further studies using the criteria developed in this study are required in other areas of public policy.

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of the study was to identify the recommendations a Delphi panel of expert practitioners judges to be the most important for improvement of the funding formula for public education in California. This study was also designed to determine the level of importance and degree of feasibility of the recommendations. </p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> This study utilized the Delphi technique to collect data in three iterative rounds. Twenty expert practitioners provided responses to a series of three questionnaires. Additionally, a priority matrix was used to analyze the importance and feasibility of the recommendations. </p><p> <b>Findings.</b> The expert panelists identified 20 recommendations for improvement of the funding formula. The panel reached consensus on the level of importance for 14 recommendations and on the feasibility of 17 recommendations. Two of the priority recommendations for improving the funding formula were related to the base grant funding amount: Experts recommended increasing the base dollar amount allocated to districts and establishing a method to ensure the base grant grows at a rate greater than cost increases incurred by districts. Additionally, two of the priority recommendations were to include students with special needs in the calculations of the funding formula. The experts also identified the need to protect against the addition of new categorical programs. </p><p> <b>Conclusions.</b> The recommendations identified by the expert panel reflect the need to revise the funding formula to adequately cover the basic needs of school districts by providing sufficient funds at the base grant level. Additionally, the recommendations demonstrate a need to revise the eligibility for supplemental and concentration grant funds so districts are able to provide supports for students with disabilities in their accountability plans. </p><p> <b>Recommendations.</b> Specific recommendations were made to improve the funding formula for public education in California: Increase base grant amounts by providing additional funds or adjusting the supplemental and/or concentration grants proportionally. Students with disabilities should be considered at risk and included in the calculations for supplemental and concentration grants. Protect the integrity of the LCFF and LCAP by reducing restrictions on the use of supplemental and concentration grants and restricting new categorical programs.</p><p>

Neste estudo, foram analisadas as políticas de esporte e de lazer em Porto Alegre, no período de 1989 a 2000. A pesquisa investigou em que medida a Supervisão de Esportes e Recreação Pública (SERP) e a Secretaria Municipal de Esportes, Recreação e Lazer (SME) obtiveram êxito na democratização do esporte e do lazer na cidade. A democratização foi analisada na perspectiva do acesso às atividades de esporte e de lazer e do poder de decisão da população na formulação, implementação e avaliação das políticas públicas. A coleta dos dados compreendeu documentos e entrevistas. Os documentos consistiram de relatórios, planos de investimentos e leis municipais; planos e relatórios da SERP e SME; e documentos do Partido dos Trabalhadores referentes ao esporte e lazer do município. Foram realizadas 19 entrevistas semi-estruturadas com professores, gestores públicos, líderes comunitários e usuários dos programas de esporte e de lazer. Os dados permitiram concluir que a democratização do esporte e do lazer na primeira gestão (1989-1992) não se efetivou na forma desejada, embora tenham ocorrido avanços no acesso aos serviços e no processo de tomada de decisão com o Orçamento Participativo (OP). Na segunda gestão (1993-1996), o acesso da população aos espaços de esporte e de lazer apresentou melhorias. Quanto ao poder de decisão, existiu um maior acesso da população com a criação da SME e da temática de esporte e de lazer no OP. Entretanto, o atendimento e a participação nas decisões continuaram abaixo do desejado. A terceira gestão (1997-2000) foi mais participativa, tendo ocorrido um processo de democratização na SME que, através da regionalização de suas ações, possibilitou maior integração com a população. Como conseqüência, houve ampliação e diversificação das ações oferecidas às comunidades. O poder de decisão foi ampliado com a realização de uma conferência municipal para discussão de propostas de esporte e de lazer. / The study focused on the public policies of sport and leisure for Porto Alegre from 1989 to 2000. The purpose was to investigate whether the Department of Sports and Public Recreation (SERP) and the Secretary of Sports, Recreation and Leisure (SME) obtained success in their goals of democratizing sport and leisure in the city. Democratization was considered in the perspective of the access to sport and leisure programs and the participation of the population in the process of policy-making. Data collection comprised documents and interviews. The document analysis considered the city council legislation and financial plans and reports, plans and reports of SERP and SME, and documents on sport and leisure produced by the Worker’s Party. The interviews were carried out with 19 public authorities, community leaders, leisure and sport instructors and park users. The study allowed concluding that the democratization of sport and leisure in the first administration period (1989-1992) did not occur as expected, even though progress was achieved in the access to the programs and in the decision-making process, with the introduction of the Participative Budget (OP). In the second administration (1993-1996), the population access to sport and leisure programs presented improvements. In the power of decision, a larger access of the population existed, being created the SME and the section of sport and of leisure in the OP. However, the attendance and the participation in the process of decision-making continued lower than expected. The third administration period (1997-2000) was more participative, a decentralization process occurred in SME facilitating larger integration with the population. As consequence, there were amplification and diversification of the actions offered to the communities. The power decision was enlarged with the accomplishment of a municipal conference for discussion with the population of proposals of sports and leisure for the city.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-10-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:25:54Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 kappann_ji_dr_assis.pdf: 634706 bytes, checksum: 8fcb18ed89dd1fd944d7f08f35fd9f9f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O consumo de drogas é um fenômeno complexo, que envolve diferentes dimensões da experiência humana, possuindo diversos fatores que devem ser levados em consideração para a sua compreensão. Os levantamentos epidemiológicos são importantes por fornecer dados objetivos para dimensionar de uma maneira mais detalhada e isenta de julgamentos de valor a real magnitude do consumo. Os estudos demonstram que o consumo de drogas precisa ser avaliado periodicamente através de pesquisas, para o planejamento e implementação de uma política pública em relação às drogas. Analisando o fenômeno das drogas à luz das definições de políticas públicas, pode-se afirmar que o Estado brasileiro não tem uma política pública unificada e eficiente nesta área. Existem projetos, programas e leis que se caracterizam como tentativas de estabelecer diretrizes nacionais sobre o assunto, mas ainda são medidas isoladas e desarticuladas. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar a prevalência do consumo de drogas entre os alunos das escolas da rede pública de Assis/SP e comparar estes dados com outros obtidos no ano 2000. A metodologia utilizada foi a mesma aplicada pelo CEBRID em todos os seus levantamentos. Foram aplicados questionários anônimos de auto preenchimento em uma mostra representativa dos alunos da rede pública de Assis. Os maiores índices de consumo, considerando uso na vida, foram: álcool (65,9%) e tabaco (15,4%); solventes (5,6%); maconha (8,0%); tranquilizantes (4,0%); anfetamínicos (2,7%); cocaína (3,0%). Não foi observada diferença significativa no uso entre o sexo feminino (18,5%) e masculino (16,5%). Em ralação a pesquisa anterior... / Drug usage is a complex phenomenon that involves different dimensions of human experience, and has several factors that should be taken into consideration to be understood. Epidemiological surveys are important for providing objective data to scale in a more detailed and free from value judgments, the magnitude of the consumption. Studies show that drug use must be evaluated periodically through research, for planning and implementation of public policy toward drugs. Analyzing the phenomenon of drugs through the lights of public policy definitions, we can assert that the State did not have a unified and effective public policy in this area. There are projects, programs and laws that are characterized as attempts to establish national guidelines on the subject, but measures are still isolated and disjointed. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of drug use among students from public schools from the city of Assis (SP) and to compare these data with others obtained in 2000. The methodology applied was the same used by CEBRID in all its surveys. Anonymous and self-fulfillment questionnaires were applied in a representative sample of public school students from AssisCity. The highest rates of consumption, considering the lifetime use were: alcohol (65,9%) and tobacco (15,4%), solvents (5,6%), cannabis (8,0%), tranquilizers (4,0 %), amphetamines (2,7%), cocaine (3,0%). There was no significant difference of drug use between female (18,5%) and male (16,5%) sex. In relation... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-08-09Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:05:43Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 severo_mfsw_dr_arafcl.pdf: 1412602 bytes, checksum: af088eedbf8eeca816edc66e051d6785 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O presente trabalho, baseado em análise documental, demonstra os debates realizados acerca do Estatuto da Juventude no Brasil entre 2004 e 2011. O Projeto de Lei surge como proposta da Câmara dos Deputados, através da Comissão Destinada a Acompanhar e Estudar Propostas de Políticas Públicas para a Juventude. Verificou-se que o Brasil é um dos últimos países da América Latina a constituir direitos civis ao jovem, e mesmo assim, o projeto de lei foi aprovado na Câmara dos Deputados após sete anos como objeto de discussão. As análises demonstraram que tal demora deveu-se a disputas de campos opostos na Câmara dos Deputados, como também, de formulações equivocadas e posições superficiais sobre a situação social do jovem no Brasil. Existe um histórico legal de proteção e promoção da criança e do adolescente, mas, quanto ao jovem, até este momento não. Revela-se que o recente debate acerca da concepção do jovem como sujeito de direitos ultrapassa o horizonte nacional de interpretação pois existe um documento que estabelece tais direitos: a Convenção Ibero-Americana dos Direitos dos Jovens de 2005. Por parte dos jovens há também pouca consciência quanto aos seus direitos e, por isso, poucos se interessam em lutar por eles. A presente pesquisa considera que, por meio das Conferências de Juventude, realizadas desde 2008, este debate pode ser ampliado e aprofundado na sociedade. Assim como aconteceu na Venezuela, com a aprovação da Lei dos Jovens discutida e aprovada entre 2002 e 2009, que tinham como princípio atividades conjuntas entre governo, sociedade civil e jovens / This paper, based on document analysis, demonstrates the debates about the status of the Youth in Brazil between 2004 and 2011. The bill comes as the House of Representatives proposed by the Commission Designed to Monitor and Study of Public Policy Proposals for Youth. It was found that Brazil is one of the last countries in Latin America to be civil to the young, and yet, the bill passed the House of Representatives after seven years as a subject of discussion. The analyzes showed that this delay was due to disputes opposing hegemonic fields in the House, but also misleading formulations and surface positions on the social situation of young people in Brazil. There is a history of legal protection and promotion of child and adolescent, but as the young, not so far. It turns out that the recent debate about the concept of youth as a subject of rights beyond the national horizon of interpretation, as there is a document that sets out these rights: the Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth 2005. For some young people there is also little awareness of their rights and, therefore, few are interested in fighting for them. This research finds that, through the Youth Conference, held since 2008, this debate can be broadened and deepened in society. Just as happened in Venezuela, with the approval of the Youth Law discussed and approved between 2002 and 2009, as a principle that had joint activities between government, civil society and youth