Word: betterment
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Commercial trade in human kidneys does seem grotesque. But it's a bit hard to say why. After all, the moral logic of capitalism does not stop at the epidermis. That logic holds, in a nutshell, that if an exchange is voluntary, it leaves both parties better off. In one case, a Turk sold a kidney for (pounds)2,500 ($4,400) because he needed money for an operation for his daughter. Capitalism in action: one person had $4,400 and wanted a kidney, another person had a spare kidney and wanted $4,400, so they did a deal. What...
Currently most school districts tell parents which public school their children must attend. It could be a school down the block or one across town in need of better racial balance. The problem, critics argue, is that parents have no say, and even bad schools are rewarded with full student bodies and tax revenues. That is beginning to change. In locations as diverse as New York's East Harlem, San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., parents are now free to select what they judge to be the best public school in their district. Minnesota goes even further. It is phasing...
Liberals like choice because it gives underprivileged students a chance for a better education. Conservatives like it because it is cheap, fosters competition among schools, and transfers power from administrators to parents. Says Chester Finn Jr., an Assistant Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan: "Choice has everything going for it, and nothing against...
...home districts, taking $2,755 per pupil in state-tax revenues to their new destinations. More than 2,500 others have applied to cross district lines starting in September. In racially divided Massachusetts, however, a similar proposal has run into strong opposition from minority groups. Magnet schools often fare better. Since 1974, such facilities in East Harlem have lured thousands of students into the district and boosted its rank in reading scores from last to 16th out of 32 New York City districts...
Many Americans believe firmly in the notion of better health through better eating. What bothers them is the specifics: Just how much of what foods, for example, are they supposed to be consuming? Last week, in a massive new report by the National Research Council, the public received the best answer yet. The 1,300-page document, titled Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk, sets forth the most comprehensive and detailed set of dietary guidelines ever...