This paper looks at the governance issue from a decidedly transnational perspective. This is because it is very hard to get a perspective on education governance as practiced in the United States only by looking at the United States. Different states in the United States have decidedly different policy preferences, but the governance system is pretty much the same across the country. It is only when one looks at the way the education systems of other countries are governed that one realizes that there are other ways to govern education systems, that the U.S. system of governance is an international outlier, and that governance structures can enlarge or limit the possibilities of change and improvement in education systems in crucially important ways. [Note: contains copyrighted material]

http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/TuckerGoverningReport.pdf PDF format, 60 pages].

According to the Census Bureau’s figures, 66.2 percent of eligible black voters cast a ballot in 2012, compared with 64.1 percent of eligible non-Hispanic white voters. Moreover, an estimated 2 million fewer white Americans voted in the election, while about 1.8 million more blacks surged to the polls. And, as exit polls suggested, an estimated 90-plus percent of black voters chose President Obama over Gov. Romney. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2013/05/14/63318/2012-election-was-a-historic-first-for-black-voters/ [HTML format].

There is a consensus that the presidential public financing program is antiquated and offers insufficient benefits to attract the most competitive candidates. No major candidate accepted public funds in 2012. In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama became the first person, since the public financing program’s inception, elected President without accepting any public funds. For some, these developments signal an urgent need to save the public campaign financing program that has existed since the 1970s; for others, they suggest that the program is unnecessary.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41604.pdf [PDF format, 6 pages].

The year 2012 marked the 30th  anniversary of the expiration of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment’s extended ratification deadline. Since that time, new analyses have emerged that bear on the question of whether the amendment proposed in 1972 remains constitutionally viable. This report examines the legislative history of an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and both identifies and provides an analysis of contemporary factors that may bear on its present and future viability.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42979.pdf [PDF format, 31 pages].

A record seven-in-ten (69%) Hispanic high school graduates in the class of 2012 enrolled in college that fall, two percentage points higher than the rate (67%) among their white counterparts,according to the datat. This milestone is the result of a long-term increase in Hispanic college-going that accelerated with the onset of the recession in 200). The rate among white high school graduates, by contrast, has declined slightly since 2008. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/2013/05/PHC_college_enrollment_2013-05.pdf [PDF format, 13 pages].