1.
Federal government of the United States
–
The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
2.
Maryland Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
–
As the capital of the United States, Washington, D. C. has 51 roadways which are named after each state and the territory of Puerto Rico. Many of these roadways are major avenues that serve as the principal traffic arteries. Every state lends its name to an avenue except for California Street, however, avenues named for Arizona, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Puerto Rico connect to no other state-named roadways. Most avenues exist in one or two quadrants, except for Massachusetts and Virginia Avenues, which travel through three of the four quadrants, though they exist in multiple sections, why Is It Named Georgia Avenue
3.
Southwest, Washington, D.C.
–
Southwest is the southwestern quadrant of Washington, D. C. the capital of the United States, and is located south of the National Mall and west of South Capitol Street. It is the smallest quadrant of the city, Southwest is small enough that it is frequently referred to as a neighborhood in and of itself. However, it contains five separate neighborhoods. The Southwest Waterfront, also called Near Southwest, is between I-395 and Fort Lesley J. McNair, Southwest Waterfront is a primarily residential neighborhood. It also is home to several Washington DC marinas, including the Washington Marina, The Capitol Yacht Club, the Gangplank Marina, buzzard Point, a largely undeveloped industrial area between South Capitol Street and Fort McNair. Buzzard Point was the home of the U. S. Coast Guard, the headquarters moved to the former St. Elizabeths Hospital campus elsewhere in DC in 2013. The Bellevue neighborhood occupies all of the Southwest land between South Capitol Street and the Anacostia and Potomac rivers, included is the small Hadley Hospital. The Blue, Orange, and Silver lines of the Washington Metro have the stations in the Southwest Federal Center, Smithsonian, LEnfant Plaza. The Yellow line also stops at LEnfant Plaza, Bolling and Bellevue have no Metrorail service, although the DC Council has considered some versions of the Anacostia streetcar that would extend to Bolling. S. Prior to 1847, much of the Virginia portion of the District of Columbia, after the Civil War, the Southwest Waterfront became a neighborhood for the poorer classes of Washingtonians. Each half was centered on religious establishments, St. Dominics Catholic Church and Talmud Torah Congregation on the west, and Friendship Baptist Church on the east. Waterfront developed into a quite contradictory area, it had a commercial district with grocery stores, shops. However, most of the neighborhood was a poor shantytown of tenements, shacks. These places, some of them in the shadow of the Capitol Building, were frequent subjects of photographs highlighting the stark contrast, in the 1950s, city planners working with the U. S. The seizure of the area, including well maintained properties, was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Berman v. Parker. Justice William Douglas emphasized the squalor and segregation the area suffered, only a few buildings were left intact, notably the Maine Avenue fish market, the Wheat Row townhouses, the Thomas Law House, and the St. Dominics and Friendship churches. The Southeast/Southwest Freeway was constructed where F Street, SW, had once been, the rebuilt Southwest featured a large concentration of office and residential buildings in the brutalist style that was then popular. It was during this time that most of the Southwest Federal Center was built, the Arena Stage was built a block west of the Mall, and a number of hotels and restaurants were built on the riverfront to attract tourists
4.
Washington, D.C.
–
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
5.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Betsy DeVos
–
Elisabeth Dee Betsy DeVos /dəˈvɒs/ is an American businesswoman, philanthropist, politician, and activist who is the 11th and current United States Secretary of Education. DeVos is a member of the Republican Party known for her advocacy of school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools. She was Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, DeVos has been an advocate of the Detroit charter school system and she is a member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She has served as chairwoman of the board of the Alliance for School Choice, DeVos is married to Dick DeVos, the former CEO of multi-level marketing company Amway, and is the daughter-in-law of billionaire and Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. Her brother, Erik Prince, a former U. S. Navy SEAL officer, is the founder of Blackwater USA, DeVos is the daughter of Edgar Prince, founder of the Prince Corporation. On November 23,2016, then President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate DeVos to serve as Secretary of Education in his administration. On February 7,2017, DeVos was confirmed by the Senate by a 51–50 margin, DeVos was born Elisabeth Prince on January 8,1958. She grew up in Holland, Michigan, the daughter of Elsa Prince and Edgar Prince, Edgar was the founder of Prince Corporation, an automobile parts supplier based in Holland, Michigan. DeVos was educated at the Holland Christian High School, a school located in her home town of Holland. She graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, DeVos grew up as a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. She has been a member and elder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, the DeVos family is one of Michigans wealthiest. Betsy DeVoss husband, Richard Marvin Dick DeVos Jr. is a heir to the Amway fortune who ran Amways parent company, Alticor. Dick DeVos is a donor to conservative political campaigns and social causes. Dicks father, Richard Marvin DeVos Sr. co-founded Amway and is also the owner of the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team, Richard DeVos was listed by Forbes in 2016 as having a net worth of $5.1 billion, making him Americas 88th wealthiest individual. Betsy DeVoss brother, Erik Prince, a former U. S. Navy SEAL officer, is the founder of Blackwater USA, Betsy and Dick DeVos have four grown children, two daughters and two sons, Rick, Elissa, Andrea, and Ryan. Rick works for the Windquest Group as a consultant on urban development, since 1982, DeVos has participated in the Michigan Republican Party. She served as a local precinct delegate for the Michigan Republican Party and she was a Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan between 1992 and 1997, and served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000. DeVos resigned the position in 2000 and she said in 2000, It is clear I have never been a rubber stamp
7.
United States Secretary of Education
–
The United States Secretary of Education is the head of the U. S. Department of Education. The Secretary advises the President on federal policies, programs, as a member of the Presidents Cabinet, this Secretary is fifteenth in the line of succession to the presidency. The United States Secretary of Education is a member of the Presidents Cabinet and is the fifteenth in the United States presidential line of succession and this Secretary deals with federal influence over education policy, and heads the U. S. Department of Education. Parties Democratic Republican Status As of April 2017, there are eight living former Secretaries of Education, the most recent Secretary of Education to die was Shirley Hufstedler on March 30,2016. – Includes the Secretary of Education
8.
United States Deputy Secretary of Education
–
The Deputy Secretary of Education oversees and manages the development of policies in the United States Department of Education. The Deputy Secretary focuses primarily on K–12 education policy, such as No Child Left Behind, the High School Initiative, the Deputy Secretary also has responsibility for carrying out the intergovernmental relations of the Department. The Deputy Secretary becomes Acting Secretary of Education in the event of the Secretarys absence, disability, the Deputy Secretary also oversees the Departments LEP Partnership, the Office for Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, and the Departments partnership with The History Channel. The Deputy Secretary is appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate, the Deputy Secretary is paid at level II of the Executive Schedule, meaning as of 2006, he or she receives a basic annual salary of $162,000. The incumbent acting Deputy Secretary is James Cole, Jr, previous deputy secretaries include Anthony Wilder Miller, Raymond Simon, Eugene W. Hickok, William D. Hansen, Frank Holleman, Marshall Smith, Madeleine M. Kunin, and David T. Kearns
9.
Department of Education Organization Act
–
The Department of Education Organization Act is a United States federal law enacted in 1979. Congress established the United States Department of Education with the Department of Education Organization Act, in the Senate,69 voted in favor and 22 voted against separating education from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In the House of Representatives,215 voted in favor and 201 voted against, president Carter signed the bill on October 17,1979. Following the establishment of the Department of Education, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was renamed the Department of Health and Human Services
10.
Cabinet of the United States
–
The Cabinet of the United States is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the government serving under the President. Aside from the Attorney General, the heads of the executive departments all receive the title of Secretary, all members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the President, who can dismiss them at will for no cause. There is no definition of the term Cabinet in the United States Constitution. The name comes from a 17th-century usage for a room where advisors would meet. The term principal officers of the departments is also mentioned in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. The executive departments are listed in 5 U. S. C, under the 1967 Federal Anti-Nepotism statute, federal officials are prohibited from appointing their immediate family members to certain governmental positions, including those in the Cabinet. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, an incoming administration may appoint acting heads of department from employees of the relevant department and these may be existing high-level career employees, from political appointees of the outgoing administration, or sometimes lower-level appointees of the incoming administration. The heads of the departments and all other federal agency heads are nominated by the President. If approved, they receive their commission scroll, are sworn in, an elected Vice President does not require Senate confirmation, nor does the White House Chief of Staff, which is an appointed staff position of the Executive Office of the President. 21 positions, including the heads of the departments and others. §5312, and those 46 positions on Level II pay are listed in 5 U. S. C, as of 2015, Level I annual pay, was set at $203,700. The annual salary of the Vice President is $235,300, the salary level was set by the Government Salary Reform Act of 1989, which also provides an automatic cost of living adjustment for federal employees. For a full list of people nominated for Cabinet positions, see Formation of Donald Trumps Cabinet, the Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments, listed here according to their order of succession to the Presidency. The following officials hold positions that are considered to be Cabinet-level positions, Department of the Navy, headed by the Secretary of the Navy, became a military department within the Department of Defense. Post Office Department, headed by the Postmaster General, reorganized as the United States Postal Service, National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense, created by the National Security Act of 1947 and recreated as the Department of Defense in 1949. Department of the Army, headed by the Secretary of the Army, Department of the Air Force, headed by the Secretary of the Air Force, became a military department within the Department of Defense. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, created in July 1781 and renamed Secretary of State in September 1789, Secretary of War, created in 1789 and was renamed as Secretary of the Army by the National Security Act of 1947. The 1949 Amendments to the National Security Act of 1947 made the Secretary of the Army a subordinate to the Secretary of Defense
11.
Jimmy Carter
–
James Earl Jimmy Carter Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center, Carter was a Democrat who was raised in rural Georgia. He was a farmer who served two terms as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967, and one as the Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He was elected President in 1976, defeating incumbent President Gerald Ford in a close election. On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts, during Carters term as President, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, were established. He established an energy policy that included conservation, price control. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. On the economic front he confronted persistent stagflation, a combination of inflation, high unemployment. The end of his tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. In response to the Soviet move he ended détente, escalated the Cold War, Carter won the 1980 primary with 51. 13% of the vote but lost the general election in an electoral landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of 50 states. His presidency has drawn medium-low responses from historians, with many considering him to have accomplished more with his post-presidency work and he set up the Carter Center in 1982 as his base for advancing human rights. He has also traveled extensively to conduct negotiations, observe elections. Additionally, Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project, since surpassing Herbert Hoover in September 2012, he has been the longest-retired president in American history. He is also the first president to mark the 40th anniversary of his election and inauguration, in reference to current political views, he has criticized some of Israels actions and policies in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has advocated for a two-state solution. James Earl Carter, Jr. was born on October 1,1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains and he is a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in Virginia in 1635. Numerous generations of Carters lived as farmers in Georgia. Carter is also a descendant of Thomas Cornell, an ancestor of Cornell Universitys founder and of Richard Nixon, Plains was a boomtown of 600 people at the time of Carters birth. His father, James Earl Carter, Sr. was a local businessman who ran a general store and had begun to invest in farmland
12.
United States Department of Energy
–
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States Government concerned with the United States policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material. It also directs research in genomics, the Human Genome Project originated in a DOE initiative, DOE sponsors more research in the physical sciences than any other U. S. federal agency, the majority of which is conducted through its system of National Laboratories. Former Governor of Texas Rick Perry is the current Secretary of Energy and he was confirmed by a 62 to 37 vote in the United States Senate on March 2,2017. In 1942, during World War II, the United States started the Manhattan Project, after the war in 1946, the Atomic Energy Commission was created to control the future of the project. The 1973 oil crisis called attention to the need to consolidate energy policy, on August 4,1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, which created the Department of Energy. Former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, who served under Presidents Nixon, a DOE spokesperson denied that phrases had been banned. In December 1999, the FBI was investigating how China obtained plans for a nuclear device. Wen Ho Lee was accused of stealing nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Peoples Republic of China, Federal officials, including then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, publicly named Lee as a suspect before he was charged with a crime. The U. S. Congress held hearings to investigate the Department of Energys mishandling of his case, republican senators thought that an independent agency should be in charge of nuclear weapons and security issues, not the Department of Energy. All but one of the 59 charges against Lee were eventually dropped because the investigation proved that the plans the Chinese obtained could not have come from Lee. Lee filed suit and won a $1.6 million settlement against the federal government, the department is under the control and supervision of a United States Secretary of Energy, a political appointee of the President of the United States. The Energy Secretary is assisted in managing the department by a United States Deputy Secretary of Energy, also appointed by the president, the department also has three under secretaries, each appointed by the president, who oversee the major areas of the departments work. The president also appoints seven officials with the rank of Assistant Secretary of Energy who have line management responsibility for major elements of the Department. The Energy Secretary assigns their functions and duties. S.4 billion budget request for DOE for fiscal year 2010, including $2.3 billion for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The budget aims to expand the use of renewable energy sources while improving energy transmission infrastructure. It also makes significant investments in hybrids and plug-in hybrids, in smart grid technologies, most of the stimulus spending was in the form of grants and contracts. The contractor guarantees the energy improvements will generate savings, and after the contract ends, in loan guarantees, a conditional commitment requires to meet an equity commitment, as well as other conditions, before the loan guarantee is completed. The DOE budget includes $280 million to fund eight Energy Innovation Hubs, yet another hub will develop smart materials that will allow the electrical grid to adapt and respond to changing conditions
13.
Education in the United States
–
Education in the United States is provided by public, private, and home schools. Funding comes from the state, local, and federal government, private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies, with voluntary accreditation available through independent regional accreditation authorities. About 87% of school-age children attend schools, about 10% attend private schools. Education is compulsory over an age range starting between five and eight and ending somewhere between ages sixteen and eighteen, depending on the state and this requirement can be satisfied in public schools, state-certified private schools, or an approved home school program. In most schools, education is divided into three levels, elementary school, middle or junior school, and high school. Children are usually divided by age groups into grades, ranging from kindergarten and first grade for the youngest children, there are also a large number and wide variety of publicly and privately administered institutions of higher education throughout the country. Post-secondary education, divided into college, as the first tertiary degree, the United States spends more per student on education than any other country. In 2014, the Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit rated US education as 14th best in the world, just behind Russia. In 2015 the Programme for International Student Assessment rated U. S. high school students #40 globally in Math and #24 in Science and Reading. ”King, Jr. acknowledged the results in conceding U. S. students were well behind their peers. According to a report published by the U. S. News & World Report, of the top ten colleges and universities in the world, government-supported and free public schools for all began to be established after the American Revolution. Between 1750 and 1870 parochial schools appeared as ad hoc efforts by parishes, historically, many parochial elementary schools were developed which were open to all children in the parish, mainly Catholics, but also Lutherans, Calvinists and Orthodox Jews. Nonsectarian Common schools designed by Horace Mann were opened, which taught the three Rs and also history and geography, States passed laws to make schooling compulsory between 1852 and 1917. They also used federal funding designated by the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Acts of 1862 and 1890 to set up land grant colleges specializing in agriculture, by 1870, every state had free elementary schools, albeit only in urban centers. His movement spread to many other Southern states to small colleges for Colored or Negro students entitled A. & M. or A. & T. some of which later developed into state universities. By 1910,72 percent of children attended school, private schools spread during this time, as well as colleges and — in the rural centers — land grant colleges also. Between 1910 and 1940 the high school movement resulted in increasing public high school enrollment. By 1930,100 percent of children attended school, during World War II, enrollment in high schools and colleges plunged as many high school and college students dropped out to take war jobs. The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v, in 1965, the far-reaching Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed as a part of President Lyndon B
14.
No Child Left Behind Act
–
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was a U. S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and it supported standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals could improve individual outcomes in education. The Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills, to receive federal school funding, states had to give these assessments to all students at select grade levels. The act did not assert a national achievement standard – each state developed its own standards, the bill passed in the Congress with bipartisan support. By 2015, criticism from right, left, and center had accumulated so much that a bipartisan Congress stripped away the national features of No Child Left Behind and its replacement, the Every Student Succeeds Act, turned the remnants over to the states. The legislation was proposed by President George W. Bush on January 23,2001 and it was coauthored by Representatives John Boehner, George Miller, and Senators Edward Kennedy and Judd Gregg. The United States House of Representatives passed the bill on May 23,2001, President Bush signed it into law on January 8,2002. No Child Left Behind requires all public schools receiving federal funding to administer a statewide standardized test annually to all students, schools that receive Title I funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 must make Adequate Yearly Progress in test scores. If the schools results are poor, then steps are taken to improve the school. Schools that miss AYP for a consecutive year are publicly labeled as In Need of Improvement. Students have the option to transfer to a school within the school district. Missing AYP in the third year forces the school to offer free tutoring, a fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school, the plan is implemented if the school unsuccessfully hits its AYP targets for the sixth consecutive year. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a school, hiring a private company to run the school. The objectives must be set with the goal of having all students at the proficient level or above within 12 years, AYP must be primarily based on state assessments, but must also include one additional academic indicator. The AYP objectives must be assessed at the school level, schools that failed to meet their AYP objective for two consecutive years are identified for improvement. School AYP results must be reported separately for each group of students identified above so that it can be determined whether each student group met the AYP objective, at least 95% of each group must participate in state assessments. States may aggregate up to three years of data in making AYP determinations, the act requires states to provide highly qualified teachers to all students. Each state sets its own standards for what counts as highly qualified, similarly, the act requires states to set one high, challenging standard for its students
15.
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
–
USICH is advised by a Council, which includes the heads of its 19 federal member agencies. The immediate past chair was Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, USICH is made up of a small team headquartered in Washington, DC, led by Executive Director Matthew Doherty. Policy staff work closely with each of the 19 Federal Agencies that make up the Council to make progress on the goals and strategies of Opening Doors. In 2010, the released the first federal strategic plan to end homelessness in the United States which includes four goals To finish the job of ending chronic homelessness by 2015. To prevent and end homelessness among Veterans by 2015, to prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children by 2020. To set a path to ending all types of homelessness, the Interagency Council on the Homeless was authorized by Title II of the landmark Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act enacted on July 22,1987. In 2002, Council members voted to approve changing the name of the agency to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the most recent reauthorization of USICH occurred in 2009 with enactment of the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act. The Council originally included the heads of 16 Federal agencies, five additional agencies were subsequently added by Council vote or statutory amendments, while two agencies are now inactive. The current members of the Council include the heads of the following 19 Departments and agencies and it is estimated that 550,000 women and men are without shelter each night in the United States. As a result, Opening Doors was drafted and serves as the nation’s first comprehensive national strategy for ending homelessness. This strategic plan, entitled Opening Doors, Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, was presented on June 22,2010 to President Obama’s staff, the strategy also presents cost-effective strategies for states, local and the federal government. Opening Doors serves as a roadmap for joint action by the 19 federal agencies of USICH, along with state and local partners in both the private and public sectors. Aside from the four main goals listed above, objectives were created around five main themes in order to specify how the strategy will work to address the issue of homelessness. Objective 2, Strengthen the capacity of public and private organizations by increasing knowledge about collaboration, homelessness, Increase access to stable and affordable housing Objective 3, Provide affordable housing to people experiencing or most at risk of homelessness. Objective 4, Provide permanent supportive housing to prevent and end chronic homelessness, Increase economic security Objective 5, Increase meaningful and sustainable employment for people experiencing or most at risk of homelessness. Objective 6, Improve access to programs and services to reduce people’s financial vulnerability to homelessness. Objective 8, Advance health and housing stability for youth aging out of such as foster care. Objective 9, Advance health and housing stability for people experiencing homelessness who have frequent contact with hospitals, retool the Homeless Crisis Response System Objective 10, Transform homeless services to crisis response systems that prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness
16.
Conservatism in the United States
–
Historians argue that the conservative tradition has played a major role in American politics and culture since the 1790s. However they have stressed that a conservative movement has played a key role in politics only since the 1950s. The recent movement is based in the Republican Party, though some Democrats were also important figures early in the movements history, the history of American conservatism has been marked by tensions and competing ideologies. Fiscal conservatives and libertarians favor small government, low taxes, limited regulation, Social conservatives see traditional social values as threatened by secularism, they tend to support voluntary school prayer and oppose abortion and same sex marriage. Some also want the teaching of intelligent design or creationism allowed, the 21st century has seen an increasingly fervent conservative support for Second Amendment rights of private citizens to own firearms. Neoconservatives want to expand American ideals throughout the world, paleoconservatives advocate restrictions on immigration, non-interventionist foreign policy, and stand in opposition to multiculturalism. Nationwide most factions, except some libertarians, support a unilateral foreign policy, the conservative movement of the 1950s attempted to bring together these divergent strands, stressing the need for unity to prevent the spread of godless communism. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress, the growth of government must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations and we believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side, President Ronald Reagan set the conservative standard in the 1980s, in the 2010s the Republican leaders typically claim fealty to it. For example, most of the Republican candidates in 2012 claimed to be standardbearers of Reagans ideological legacy, the 1980s and beyond became known as the Reagan Era. Typically, conservative politicians and spokesmen in the 21st century proclaim their devotion to Reagans ideals and policies on most social, economic and they support a strong policy of law and order to control crime, including long jail terms for repeat offenders. Most conservatives support the death penalty for particularly egregious crimes, the law and order issue was a major factor weakening liberalism in the 1960s. From 2001 to 2008, Republican President George W. Bush stressed cutting taxes and minimizing regulation of industry and banking, Conservatives generally advocate the use of American military power to fight terrorists and promote democracy in the Middle East. According to a 2014 poll, 38% of American voters identify as conservative or very conservative, 34% as moderate, although the study does show some distinction between the concentration of moderates and conservatives or liberals between the Republican and Democratic parties. Among Democrats, 44% are self-identified liberals, 19% as conservatives, for Republicans 70% self-identified as conservative, 24% as moderate, and 5% as liberal. Conservatism appears to be growing stronger at the state level, the trend is most pronounced among the least well-off, least educated, most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states. Conservatives generally believe that government action is not the solution to problems as poverty and inequality
17.
States rights
–
The balance of federal powers and those powers held by the states as defined in the Supremacy Clause of the U. S. Constitution was first addressed in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supremacy Clause of the U. S. The Articles gave the government very little, if any. Gutzman argued that Governor Edmund Randolph designed the protest in the name of moderation, Gutzman argues that in 1798, Madison espoused states rights to defeat national legislation that he maintained was a threat to republicanism. During 1831–33, the South Carolina Nullifiers quoted Madison in their defense of states rights, the most vociferous supporters of states rights, such as John Randolph of Roanoke, were called Old Republicans into the 1820s and 1830s. Tate undertook a literary criticism of a book by John Taylor of Caroline. Tate argues it is structured as a forensic historiography modeled on the techniques of 18th-century Whig lawyers, Taylor believed that evidence from American history gave proof of state sovereignty within the union, against the arguments of nationalists such as U. S. Another states rights dispute occurred over the War of 1812, at the Hartford Convention of 1814–15, New England Federalists voiced opposition to President Madisons war, and discussed secession from the Union. One major and continuous strain on the union, from roughly 1820 through the Civil War, was the issue of trade, heavily dependent upon international trade, the almost entirely agricultural and export-oriented South imported most of its manufactured goods from Europe or obtained them from the North. The North, by contrast, had a growing industrial economy that viewed foreign trade as competition. Trade barriers, especially protective tariffs, were viewed as harmful to the Southern economy, in 1828, the Congress passed protective tariffs to benefit trade in the northern states, but that were detrimental to the South. Southerners vocally expressed their opposition in documents such as the South Carolina Exposition and Protest in 1828. Exposition and Protest was the work of South Carolina senator and former vice president John C, calhoun, formerly an advocate of protective tariffs and internal improvements at federal expense. South Carolinas Nullification Ordinance declared that both the tariff of 1828 and the tariff of 1832 were null and void within the borders of South Carolina. This action initiated the Nullification Crisis, over the following decades, another central dispute over states rights moved to the forefront. In contrast, opponents of slavery argued that the rights were violated both by that decision and by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Exactly which—and whose—states rights were the casus belli in the Civil War remain in controversy, a major Southern argument in the 1850s was that banning slavery in the territories discriminated against states that allowed slavery, making them second-class states. In 1857 the Supreme Court sided with the states rights supporters, Southern states sometimes argued against states rights
