Intense media coverage of the public pension funding crisis continues to fuel heightened awareness in and debate over public pension benefits. With over $3 trillion in assets currently under management, the ramifications of poor oversight are severe. It is important that practitioners, researchers, and taxpayers be well-advised regarding any concer
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way Ma was a crafty lady who had been taught well by her father and mother, Elias Samuel Totten and Nancy Jane Bradford Totten. She learned to cook, sew, plow, hoe, pick cotton, do housework, and dry apples and peaches for fried pies. She worked like a man. She could plow behind a mule as well as most men. She could also pull her weight in using a crosscut saw for cutting logs and firewood for the fireplace, kitchen cook stove, and the big iron potbelly heating stove that heated our house. In Carl J. Barger’s latest book, Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way, he writes of growing up in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Cleburne County, Arkansas. He relates his struggles and triumphs as the ninth child in a family of eleven children born during the Great Depression to Edward and Mamie Ann Totten Barger of Higden, Arkansas. Growing up in the small community of Higden, population 122, he experienced poverty as well as a thirst for knowledge and understanding, always dreaming of a better life. He remembers lying awake at night listening to his mother crying, while she wondered where the family’s next meal was coming from. His Pa would say, “Mamie, I’m going to take care of that. Don’t you worry!” Barger includes the people who made a difference in his life; people who challenged him, motivated him, and influenced the man he became. He gives credit where credit is due. Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way was written to inspire others who are struggling, not knowing what the future holds for them.
Major financial mistakes no longer have to be a rite of passage for adulthood. But First, Save 10 casts aside self-judgment budgeting, demystifies common financial jargon, and teaches a simple approach designed to yield abundance and joy. Plan retirement on your own terms and buck that unfulfilling job or start your dream business-this system is your ticket to a life of true freedom, however you define it. With a pay yourself first cash management system combined with automation, you'll accomplish what prior generations have collectively failed to do: 1. Save (enough) and invest to retire;2. Create, fund, and retain an emergency fund;3. Save for future expenses that bring joy, security, and freedom;4. Pay down debt aggressively and use debt sparingly and responsibly;5. Design a life with low fixed overhead; and6. Enjoy spending the rest. Finally, we have a sustainable routine, adaptable for any income at any life point-a system that offers the power to design our futures and define our destinies.
Considers H.R. 5710, to amend the Social Security Act to increase benefits for the aged, expand the class of eligible persons, revise aid to dependent children programs, expand Medicare coverage, revise programs for disabled persons to provide work incentives, expand child welfare provisions, and modify the tax status of the elderly. Along with other supplemental materials, contains HEW Actuarial Study No. 63, "Long-Range Cost Estimates for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System, 1966," Jan. 1967 (p. 131-183), pt.1; Continuation of hearings on H.R. 5710, to amend the Social Security Act to increase benefits under the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance system and to improve the health insurance and public assistance programs, pt.2; Continuation of hearings on H.R. 5710, to amend the Social Security Act to increase benefits, pt. 3-4.
The past decade has seen a steady flow of important and innovative papers documenting the short- and long-term effects of finance reforms and the heterogeneity of the effects of reforms, exemplified by papers like Jackson, Johnson, & Persico (2016), Lafortune, Rothstein, & Schanzenbach (2018), Hyman (2017), and Candelaria and Shores (2019). Those papers have reinvigorated research on the effects of finance reforms, while raising important questions about how to best design a finance system and generate necessary revenues. The papers mentioned above, along with other papers too numerous to mention, have taken advantage of better data and better methods to address long-standing questions and generate provocative new answers. Since the landscape has changed quickly, policy makers and prospective researchers require a summary of the current state of the research on the effects of school finance reforms. Answers are also needed to such questions as: • To what extent are lessons from the Great Recession applicable to the Covid-19 induced crisis. For example, how will states allocate cuts in grants and will those cuts undo state progress in equalizing educational access? Are there strategies for allocating resources that best preserve student learning? • How do financing systems need to be modified to accommodate greater use of online education? • How should school finance systems be designed to provide equal access (or, at a minimum, adequate access) to students with special needs? • Why is there significant heterogeneity in the results of different finance reforms? • What have been the effects of recent state efforts to reduce the role of the property tax in financing K-12 education? • How should finance systems be designed to more effectively close persistent achievement gaps? • How, if at all, should states integrate the financing of preschool education with the financing of elementary and secondary education? To help prepare the next generation of researchers and policy makers in the realm of school finance, this volume includes papers that summarize the current state of research on the questions above, as well as other pressing questions in education finance and policy. The book aims to bridge a space between comprehensive textbooks and journal articles in the field of education finance and policy. There are two main target audiences. The book is meant to serve professionals like school district administrators and education policy practitioners that desire a contemporary update to their previous study of education finance and policy issues. These audiences often have limited access to peer reviewed journals and knowledge of pertinent government and related policy reports in the field. The book is also meant to serve students and faculty from programs in public administration, public policy, community development and applied economics, education administration, educational leadership and policy studies that are studying content related to education policy, the economics of education, state and local public finance, and taxation. Some upper-level undergraduate students may also benefit from this resource.