Jim F. Couch

Private school enrollment and public school performance

Federal, state, and local expenditures for public education amounted to

New Deal Spending and the States: The Politics of Public Works

184 billion, or

Differences in the Success of NFL Coaches by Race: A Different Perspective

4,538 per pupil, in 1987-88 (Lieberman, 1989: 29). At the same time, educational achievement in the United States, whether measured in terms of student performance on standardized tests, literacy rates, or other dimensions of learning, has been stagnant for a decade or more (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). As a result, public concern with public education has reached a level not seen since the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite in 1957. Calls for educational reform are rampant in many states, with proposals being advanced for increasing teacher salaries, implementing merit pay for teachers, adopting more stringent teacher training and certification requiremens, and introducing various other initiatives designed to improve the quality of education delivered by the public schools. Experiments with introducing choice into the public education process are also beginning to be undertaken. In 1987, for example, Minnesota implemented a plan allowing students to enroll at any public school within the state. Similarly, public school officials in Boston are considering a proposal that would divide the city into three autonomous zones and allow elementary and middle school students to attend any school within their zone of residence (Kelly, 1990). All such experiments are designed to improve the quality of public education by weakening the monopoly power of local school districts. The premise of this approach to educational reform is that by allowing greater freedom of

Alabama’s Enterprise Zones: Designed to Aid the Needy?

Every academic discipline has its defining moments. Perhaps no other single event in modern history has had a greater impact on both the development of economic theory and the practice of economic policy than the Great Depression. One economist recently suggested that the Great Depression is as important to economics as the Big Bang is to theoretical physics (Margo 1993).

Environmental Protection Agency Enforcement Patterns: A Case of Political Pork Barrel?

Madden analyzed data on coaching records in the National Football League during the 1990-2002 seasons. The overall conclusion is that African American coaches are held to higher employment standards, with respect to winning, than White coaches. Maddens model used complete seasons coached and omitted partial seasons. Here, the data are analyzed analogously but partial seasons are included. The inclusion of partial season results in a lack of significance of race as a factor in firing. Furthermore, there are other potential explanations of the historically low percentage of African American coaches in the National Football League. These are discussed herein.

Toll Bridge over Troubled Waters: New Deal Agriculture Programs in the South

The Alabama Enterprise Zone Act established 27 zones across the state. The act provides incentives to business firms that locate within an approved zone in an effort to attract desperately needed jobs. Zone status was purported to be based on economic need as measured by five variables. In this article, the selection process is closely examined. The authors find that the selection criteria were frequently ignored in favor of political concerns. The results suggest that a policy designed to help needy individuals in the state was convoluted by the political process.

The Market for NFL Coaches and Managers

This study examined the possible link between congressional membership on one of two powerful committees with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversight power and the incidence of EPA citations being levied against those firms headquartered within the committee members’ home districts. Using a sample of 109 Fortune 500 firms for the 1992–1993 time period, the results suggest a significant and negative link between committee membership on either the House Appropriations Committee or the House Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Committee, and the number of EPA citations levied against firms headquartered in the districts of the congresspersons serving on these committees. The results suggest that politicians may exercise power in order to protect their constituents, rather than to protect the national interest.

Nation of Origin Bias and the Enforcement of Immigration Laws by the Immigration and Naturalization Service

In this paper, we explore the political basis of the New Deal, with special reference to agricultural programs in the South. An analysis of specific New Deal programs is largely missing from the literature. To that end, we investigate federal emergency relief efforts targeting agriculture—one of the hardest hit sectors of the economy and one of the Roosevelt administration’s top priorities. Our analysis suggests that the cross-state distribution of agricultural relief was guided more by President Roosevelt’s electoral strategy and by the interests of the members of key congressional agriculture committees than by objective economic need.

The Political Economy of the New Deal

Everyone in an organization plays a role in the success or lack thereof in achieving stated objectives. Sports are no exception in this regard. Players, coaches, trainers, front offices, owners, and other staff each contribute to the ultimate results, whether they be winning, making money, or both. It is hardly uncommon for debates to ensue across the country regarding which group is ultimately the most responsible for the success or failure of the team. In this chapter, the contribution of coaches is considered.

The Impact of Enterprise Zones on Job Creation in Mississippi

We examine the enforcement patterns of the INS and find that while the INS vows to enforce the immigration laws in an equitable manner, there is significant variability in the agency’s enforcement patterns. In states where construction jobs represent a large portion of the workforce, INS activity is significantly lower. Furthermore, while the agency is very active in enforcement in states where Russian and Haitian immigrants are prevalent, they appear to relax enforcement in states where Chinese, Jamaicans, and Mexicans reside. The differences in enforcement patterns are statistically significant, and suggest actions taken by the INS may be politically motivated.