Report September 2001

In remarks delivered at the Levy Institute’s recent conference on educational policy, summarized in this issue, Bard College President Leon Botstein stated that schools will never function well if the general culture does not express an excitement and joy about learning. Botstein stressed the need for afterschool programs, which provide a more peer-supported environment that can instill a motivation to learn.

Contents: Conferences: "What Has Happened to the Quality of Life in America and Other Advanced Industrialized Nations?" and "After the Bell: Education Solutions outside the School" * New Working Paper topics include: The economics of German unification, the new multiracial categories contained in the 2000 Census, and the polarization of wealth in the United States * Four new Policy Notes