Search results

This paper addresses the current “big questions” debate in public administration and proposes an appropriate placement for organization theory in the discourse of the discipline. Major scholars in organization theory are analyzed in terms of their relationship to the big questions. Public administration is discussed as a confused discipline, but a discipline nonetheless, and organization theory finds its place as the foundation for discussion and examination of public administration’s “big questions.”

The purpose of this research is to explain the adoption of lottery policies among counties in Tennessee. Various socio-demographic variables were measured through the use of logistic regression analysis for determining lottery adoption among all the counties in Tennessee. The results of the logistic regression model suggest that the most significant variables contributing to the adoption of the state lottery in Tennessee are party affiliation of voters and the region of the state in which voters reside. Since the findings of this manuscript are concerned with only the state of Tennessee, one should proceed with caution when trying to generalize these results to other states that have recently adopted a state lottery. The contributions of this research suggest that political and regional indicators are the best predictors in understanding lottery adoption among counties in Tennessee. These findings are consistent with results that have attempted to explain lottery and casino adoption across the American states. In addition, this study contributes to the current literature by suggesting that intercultural political differences may have contributed significantly to the adoption of a state lottery in Tennessee.

The state of Tennessee is part of the United States that houses a special set of school districts known as the Black Belt. Named for the black fertile land, utilized for the agricultural industry for hundreds of years in the south, these school districts have the lowest levels of achievement among the one hundred and thirty six school districts in Tennessee. The purpose of this study is to identify just how extensive these achievement discrepancies are between Black Belt school students and non-Black Belt school students by answering the following research question: are Black Belt school students disproportionately scoring lower on college admittance exams (ACT) than students in non-Black Belt school districts? The data for this study was gathered from the Tennessee Report Card for Education over a period of ten years. Pooled time series cross-sectional regression analysis was the datatesting device employed in the study. The findings suggest that Black Belt students are disproportionately scoring lower on college admittance exams compared to non-Black Belt students. Policymakers need to use caution when generalizing this study because it only represents those Black Belt school districts in Tennessee.

The Mississippi Legislature adopted casino gaming in 1990 for the purpose of curing financial ills that have long plagued the Magnolia state. Local policy makers were given the opportunity to tax the casino industry at 3.2 percent of gaming wins, with an additional .8 percent if these local government stakeholders deemed it necessary to extract additional supplemental revenue from the casino industry. One program designated as a beneficiary of this revenue-generating source was education. This paper borrows research techniques from the lottery literature in an effort to measure the impact of casino gaming dollars on per pupil spending in Mississippi. The conclusions reached by this research suggests that the thirteen school districts receiving casino proceeds for education are significantly benefiting from this supplemental source of revenue.

Lotteries have gained immense popularity for enhancing fiscal resources for social intervention programs such as education. However, the fiscal significance of lotteries for accomplishing educational equity across the American states has been empirically challenged. Much of the literature on lotteries suggests that financial reliance on state operated lotteries for educational embellishment may actually hinder the process of educational egalitarianism. Through pooled time series regression analysis, this project intends to demonstrate that states earmarking lottery dollars for education are receiving fewer fiscal allocations for education from the federal government than states opting to by-pass adoption of a lottery for education. The data for this project will include fourteen variables over a twentyyear period covering all fifty states.

State operated lotteries have recently been asserted by public administrators and academicians as panaceas for eradicating revenue disparities existing across public school districts in the American states. The purpose of this research project is to empirically confirm the accusations against attributing credibility to this social intervention program because educational disparity portrays a grave injustice in the U.S. Pooled time series cross sectional analysis is the methodology mechanism employed to test the data in this research project. This study found that lotteries, since their inception, despite expressed high regards, display insufficient significance in generating revenue for educational programs in the southern states. One highly probable reason for the lottery’s insignificant effect in generating educational revenue is the idea of fungibility. One of the major limitations of this study is the small sample size of only using southern states to test the theory that lotteries contribute significantly to educational expenditures in the southern states of America. Using pooled time series cross sectional analysis of all fifty states is a highly recommended approach for future studies concerned with assessing the impact of lotteries on public education expenditures.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

REPERCUSSIONS of the Margate Conference will be felt for some time to come. There is still the suggestion that one or the other side won in the debate on central control, for example, but we would suggest that it was an occasion when a case was stated and combatted and that the result was the only wise one; that is to say, both parties agreed that the Council should consider the matter. It would be in the highest degree dangerous if at any open meeting of over 1,000 members of the Library Association any policy, then for the first time outlined, should be adopted as a settled rule of life. Such questions as central control have to be considered in all their bearings, and admirable as was the case Colonel Mitchell made for it, and forceful as was Mr. Berwick Sayers's rejoinder, they would not be regarded as final statements, even by themselves. There were some murmurings at the swift close of the debate, and there were more than murmurings that so important a matter should arise without due notice. These are not quite reasonable, and no one could have handled the meeting more quietly and impartially than the President (Mr. Savage) did. That no notice was given of the debate is hardly true although the words of the motion proposed by Colonel Mitchell were not known until the debate began; but the intention of the debate was to elicit opinions which might help the council in framing a policy; there was no intention to reach a decision or to publish the results of the meeting. A considered report, twelve months hence, on the deliberations of the L.A. Council on the matter should be far better than any account of the vapourings at Margate.