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Full-Text Articles in Law
Transracial Foster Care And Adoption: Issues And Realities, Fern L. Johnson, Stacie Mickelson, Mariana Lopez Davila
Transracial Foster Care And Adoption: Issues And Realities, Fern L. Johnson, Stacie Mickelson, Mariana Lopez Davila
New England Journal of Public Policy
The article places transracial foster care and adoption into a broader perspective that highlights social and cultural factors and the reasons for controversy about this adoption option. The first section describes the demographics of children in the foster care system. This is followed by an overview of requirements for approval as foster and adoptive parents in Massachusetts and information about the laws governing transracial adoption. The controversy over transracial adoption is laid out by explaining the race-blind and race-matching positions. Policy priorities are outlined that take into account the main points of controversy. The final section focuses on growth in …
When They Need Help The Most: Public Services For Immigrants, Miren Uriarte, Phillip Granberry
When They Need Help The Most: Public Services For Immigrants, Miren Uriarte, Phillip Granberry
New England Journal of Public Policy
Ending unauthorized immigration is at the heart of current federal initiatives in both immigration and social policy. The intertwining of these two areas of policy is nowhere clearer than in the 1996 passage of both the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), better known as Welfare Reform, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Immigration status became a key point of differentiation in access to public benefits as cutbacks were instituted with the stated goal of curtailing undocumented immigration. The denial of public benefits to limit unauthorized immigration has a disproportionate impact on those groups …
The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff
The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff
New England Journal of Public Policy
In the November 8, 1994, state election, Massachusetts voters approved a question placed on the ballot by initiative petition passing a law that effectively outlawed rent control throughout the commonwealth. This law had its most dramatic effect in Cambridge, where a stringent rent control system had been in effect since 1970. The success of the petition was realized primarily through the grassroots efforts of a coalition of small-property owners in Cambridge who felt aggrieved by the city's rent control system. The use of a statewide vote on an initiative petition to enact a law with predominantly local effect created for …
The Impact Of The State Constitutional Convention Of 1917 On State Aid To Higher Education In Massachusetts, John P. Whittaker
The Impact Of The State Constitutional Convention Of 1917 On State Aid To Higher Education In Massachusetts, John P. Whittaker
New England Journal of Public Policy
The Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention of 1917 marked a turning point in the development of higher education in the state. An amendment adopted at the convention put an end to a long tradition of direct state appropriations to support the development of private colleges and to proposals for cooperative efforts between various state agencies and private institutions. After that time, only state institutions would receive state support. This decision resulted from an attempt to resolve an intense debate over the use of public funding for sectarian and other private institutions, which reflected the intense religious and class conflict inherent in …
Social Investment In Massachusetts Public Higher Education: A Comparative Analysis, Clyde W. Barrow
Social Investment In Massachusetts Public Higher Education: A Comparative Analysis, Clyde W. Barrow
New England Journal of Public Policy
State expenditures on public higher education are increasingly viewed as a social investment that is necessary to sustain economic growth in a postindustrial economy. However, an analysis of comparative data indicates that state support for such education was below national averages during the 1980s and, when compared to its major competitor states, Massachusetts ranks poorly in support for these institutions. This article concludes that unless state support is increased over the next decade, Massachusetts will risk losing its competitive economic position, while educational administrators will be forced to choose between access or quality in public higher education.
Not By Numbers Alone: A New Decade For Women In The Law, Margaret H. Marshall
Not By Numbers Alone: A New Decade For Women In The Law, Margaret H. Marshall
New England Journal of Public Policy
There has been a dramatic increase in both the percentage and the numbers of women who have entered the legal profession in the last fifteen years, but women have not penetrated its higher echelons — partnerships in law firms, general counsel of corporations, and chiefs of government bureaus — in the same percentage that those advances should be reflecting. While entry-level salaries may be equal for male and female attorneys, are women in the legal world discovering the same glass ceilings and barriers to entry at these top levels of economic empowerment that their corporate counterparts have experienced? The author …
Employment Leave: Foundation For Family Policy, Mary Jane Gibson
Employment Leave: Foundation For Family Policy, Mary Jane Gibson
New England Journal of Public Policy
Women and men in the workforce face difficult dilemmas during family crises. Can one be a responsible family member and a responsible employee when an elderly parent is ill, a spouse is disabled, a baby is born or adopted, a child is sick? Employment leave with insurance for wage replacement is a cornerstone of family policy proposed in a workable format in H. 2191 now before the Massachusetts legislature. It can be a model for other states and, someday, the nation.
The Problems Of Rural Reindustrialization: A Case Study Of Monroe, Massachusetts, Jeanne H. Armstrong, John R. Mullin
The Problems Of Rural Reindustrialization: A Case Study Of Monroe, Massachusetts, Jeanne H. Armstrong, John R. Mullin
New England Journal of Public Policy
Owing to the departure of the mill industry from rural New England, many small towns have suffered erosion of their economic base. These towns and villages face a declining population, vacant mills, and an aging workforce. Monroe, Massachusetts, is an example of the problems of rural reindustrialization. This article concludes that state intervention is required for the restoration of productivity.
Medicaid And Medicaid Cost Containment In Massachusetts, Fredric A. Waldstein
Medicaid And Medicaid Cost Containment In Massachusetts, Fredric A. Waldstein
New England Journal of Public Policy
The purpose of this article is to describe Medicaid's financial structure and examine cost containment efforts to limit future growth of the program, particularly pertaining to Massachusetts. The principal focus is the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare and the Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the two agencies most responsible for Medicaid cost containment in the commonwealth. Because elected officials are unwilling to face directly the troublesome issues surrounding Medicaid and its growth, the government agencies responsible for cost containment have been left to define the scope of the problem, design remedial strategies, and evaluate their success. This process is found …
It's Hard Outside: Profiles Of Elderly Homelessness, Joseph Doolin
It's Hard Outside: Profiles Of Elderly Homelessness, Joseph Doolin
New England Journal of Public Policy
This article is a qualitative study of the lives of homeless elders in Boston. It examines the concerns uppermost in the minds of the homeless including the art of integrating their past lives into the values and milieu of their current homeless situation. Concern about the reinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in public shelters, domiciles once reserved for the older alcoholic, the pressures and stress of shelter life, victimization, the shrinking supply of SRO units, and the role of alcohol are also examined. Considered in detail are various coping strategies and supports utilized by older adults in their survival roofless. …
Managing Change: Reflections On Innovation In The Public Sector, Ira A. Jackson, Jane P. O'Hern
Managing Change: Reflections On Innovation In The Public Sector, Ira A. Jackson, Jane P. O'Hern
New England Journal of Public Policy
In January 1983, when Governor Michael S. Dukakis appointed Ira Jackson as commissioner of revenue, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was facing an estimated $300 million deficit. The state was also suffering from a severe loss of public confidence in the integrity of its tax administration. His first and most urgent priority being the restoration of that confidence, Commissioner Jackson implemented a three-part strategy to improve voluntary compliance with the tax laws: raising the stakes for evaders, treating honest taxpayers as customers rather than victims, and changing public attitudes about tax evasion. Productivity gains and innovative procedures at the Department of …