26. The term third party is used in the United States for a political party other than one of the two major parties, at present, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. It is used as (innumerate) shorthand for all such parties, or sometimes only the largest of them. The term is often used dismissively; also called minor parties. See also Third party (politics).
Historically, in the U.S. since the formation of organized political parties in the 1830s, the country has had a two-party system. Following Duverger's law, the Electoral College with its "winner take all" award of electors in presidential elections plus, for Congress, single-seat plurality voting, have, over time, created the two-party system. Another contributing factor is the division of the government into three separate branches, which differs from the parliamentary system.
Although third parties rarely win national elections, they can have an effect on them. Third parties can draw attention to issues that may be ignored by the majority parties. If the issue finds resonance with the voters, one or more of the major parties may adopt the issue into its own party platform. Also, a third party may be used by the voter to cast a protest vote as a form of referendum on an important issue. Third parties may also help voter turnout bringing more people to the polls. Third party candidates at the top of the ticket can help to draw attention to other party candidates down the ballot, helping them to win local or state office. In 2004 the U.S. electorate consisted of an estimated 43% registered Democrats and 33% registered Republicans, with independents and those belonging to other parties constituting 25%.
In the United States , a Political Action Committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a matter of state and federal law. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, an organization becomes a "political committee" by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election.

Interest Groups and Political Action Committees: Liberal
• The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
• Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
• Human Rights Campaign - Working for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights.
• League of Conservation Voters (LCV) - "Holding Congress Accountable on the Environment"
• Move On
• National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL)
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• National Organization for Women (NOW)
• Oxfam America
• People for the American Way
• Planned Parenthood
• Sierra Club
Interest Groups and Political Action Committees: Conservative
• American Conservative Union (ACU)
• Campaign for Working Families
• Christian Coalition America
• Citizens United
• Concerned Women for America
• Family Policy Network
• GOPAC
• National Rifle Association (NRA)
• National Right to Life
• National Tax-Limitation Committee
• National Taxpayers Union (NTU)
Interest Groups and Political Action Committees: Other
• American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
• Amnesty International
• Common Cause - "works for open, accountable government and the right of all citizens to be involved in shaping our nation's public policies."
• Concord Coalition - "A nonpartisan, grassroots organization advocating fiscal responsibility while ensuring Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are secure for all generations."
• National Federation of Independent Business - "The voice of small and independent business."
• Taxpayers for Common Sense - "dedicated to cutting wasteful government spending and subsidies in order to achieve a responsible and efficient government that lives within its means."
• United States Chamber of Commerce - "The world's largest not-for-profit business federation."
27. The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States district court. Each federal judicial district has at least one courthouse, and many districts have more than one. The formal name of a district court is "the United States District Court for" the name of the district court for example, the "United States District Court for the Southern District of New York". In contrast to the Supreme Court, which was established by Article III of the Constitution, the district courts were established by Congress. There is no constitutional requirement that there be any district courts at all.
In the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States is the highest Federal court in the country, with powers of judicial review first asserted in Calder v. Bull (1798) in Justice Iredell's dissenting opinion. The power was later given binding authority by Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison (1803).
Each U.S. state has a state supreme court, though some do not actually use the term "supreme court" which is the highest authority interpreting state law.In Maine and Massachusetts the highest court is styled the "Supreme Judicial Court"; the latter is the oldest appellate court of continuous operation in the Western hemisphere. In New York, Maryland, and the District of Columbia the highest court is the "Court of Appeals." (In New York, the "Supreme Court" is the trial court of general unlimited jurisdiction and the intermediate appellate court is called the "Supreme Court — Appellate Division".) In West Virginia, the highest court of the state is called "Supreme Court of Appeals." Oklahoma and Texas each have two separate highest courts, one for criminal appeals ("Court of Criminal Appeals") and one for civil cases ("Supreme Court").
The United States federal courts comprises the Judiciary Branch of government organized under the Constitution and laws of the federal government of the United States. While federal courts are generally created by the United States Congress under the constitutional power described in Article III, many of the specialized courts are created under the authority granted in Article I. Much greater power is vested in Article III courts because these courts are much more independent of Congress and the President. If Article I courts were able to exercise that level of power, the balance of power between the branches of government would be threatened. Notably, the only federal court that can issue proclamations of federal law that bind state courts is the Supreme Court itself. Decisions of the lower federal courts on issues of federal law are persuasive but not binding authority in the states in which those federal courts sit.[1]
The right to fair trial is seen as an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. A trial in these countries that is deemed unfair will typically be restarted, or its verdict quashed.
The right to a fair trial is explicitly proclaimed in Article Ten of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Article Six of the European Convention of Human Rights, as well as numerous other constitutions and declarations throughout the world.
Judicial review is the power of the courts to annul the acts of the executive and/or the legislative power where it finds them incompatible with a higher authority, such as the terms of a written constitution. Judicial review is an example of the functioning of separation of powers in a modern governmental system (where the judiciary is one of several branches of government). This principle is interpreted differently in different jurisdictions, which also have differing views on the different hierarchy of governmental norms. As a result, the procedure and scope of judicial review differs from country to country and state to state.
28.
• Republicans Believe that the United States were founded on the fundamental principle that individuals have certain rights and freedoms which cannot be infringed upon and may be restricted only to the degree necessary to preserve the rights of others.
Democrats Believe that our Founding Fathers did not really mean what they said when they guaranteed certain constitutional rights such as the right to freedom of religious expression, the right to keep and bear arms, and the right to retain the use of private property.
• Republicans Believe the money you earn is yours and that government in a free society has the right to take only as much as is needed to perform those limited functions, which are appropriate to it.
Democrats Believe government has a right to use your money as it sees fit to redistribute wealth, establish new spending programs in times of budget surpluses, and to return to you only that portion of your money which is politically expedient.
• Republicans Believe the traditional family and the values it fosters are the foundation of American society and their preservation is essential to our Nation's continued success.
Democrats Believe American society must redefine its values and the role of the family to fit new lifestyle concepts, which have resulted from the 60's counter-culture movement and an attitude that promotes an abrogation of individual responsibility.
• Republicans Believe parents have the right to determine the values with which their children will be raised and to have the widest possible choice among public, private and religious schools and that competition will improve public education.
Democrats Believe the federal government has the right to determine the values which will be taught in public schools and parents' choice of schools must be limited to avoid exposing public schools to competitive forces which would encourage reform and increase accountability.
• Republicans Believe that the free enterprise system is the most effective engine of economic progress.
Democrats Believe that government regulation and federal control of economic activity can better distribute wealth and services to the American people.
• Republicans Believe high taxes, runaway government spending, and over-regulation of business and farming punish initiative and stifle economic growth.
Democrats Believe penalizing achievement with higher taxes and increased government bureaucracy and spending will not stifle economic growth but instead guarantee prosperity for everyone.
• Republicans Believe that with freedom comes responsibility and that individuals must take personal responsibility for their own actions and our criminal justice system must be based on this idea.
Democrats Believe individual behavior, including criminal behavior, can be blamed on "society" and that spending on social welfare programs and improvements in prison living conditions can combat crime.
• Republicans Believe that your property is yours and you have the basic right to make use of it without unreasonable government restrictions.
Democrats Believe the government has the right to regulate the use of private property in accordance with narrow special interests without giving just compensation to owners.
• Republicans Believe the preservation of our rights and freedoms must be entrusted to a strong national defense and of the ability of the United States to negotiate with other nations from a position of strength.
Democrats Believe we can afford to drastically weaken our military despite the threats present in an unstable, post-Cold War international environment and the United States must subjugate its interests to those of the United Nations.
• Republicans Believe it is imperative today to re-affirm the traditional freedoms and values of America to preserve our great Republic.
Democrats Believe that America must adopt a politically correct, multi-cultural set of values which denies common American heritage and will further divide American society.
• Republicans Believe there can be differences of opinion and that such differences such result in opponents, not enemies.
Democrats Believe that all whom oppose them are to be treated as enemies.
• Republicans Believe that all of America's citizens can enjoy the rights and freedoms of our country without diminishing the rights of others.
Democrats Believe that some must give up a portion of their rights and freedoms that others may enjoy those same rights and freedoms.
• Republicans Believe that public servants, particularly those whom we elect to office, must be held accountable to the highest standards of ethical conduct. "If a man cannot be trusted with the government of himself, can he be trusted with the government of others?" [Thomas Jefferson]
Democrats Believe that loyalty to a discredited leader is a virtue and if other office holders have committed indiscretions, a sitting office holder should not be criticized for failing to uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct.
29. The economy of the United States is the largest national economy in the world.[11] Its gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated as $14.2 trillion in 2008.[12] The U.S. economy maintains a high level of output per person (GDP per capita, $46,800 in 2008, ranked at around number ten in the world). The U.S. economy has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a low unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment funded by both national and, because of decreasing saving rates, increasingly by foreign investors. In 2008, seventy-two percent of the economic activity in the U.S. came from consumers.[13]
Major economic concerns in the U.S. include external debt, entitlement liabilities for retiring baby boomers who have already begun withdrawing from their Social Security accounts, corporate debt, mortgage debt, a low savings rate, falling house prices, and a large current account deficit. As of September 2008, the gross U.S. external debt was over $13.6 trillion,[14] the most external debt of any country in the world.[15] The 2008 estimate of the United States public debt was 73% of GDP.[16] As of March 2009, the total U.S. federal debt exceeded $10.9 trillion,[7] about $37,850 per capita.
Sectors: Mining Utilities Construction Manufacturing Wholesale trade Retail trade Transportation & warehousing Information Finance & insurance Real estate & rental & leasing Professional, scientific, & technical services Management of companies & enterprises Administrative & support & waste management & remediation service Educational services Health care & social assistance Arts, entertainment, & recreation Accommodation & food services Other services (except public administration)
Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food.
Agriculture - products: wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; forest products; fish
Manufacturing
USA is the leading manufacturer in the world with a 2007 industrial output of US$2,696,880 millions. Main industries are petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining.
30. Class mobility
Class ascendancy—namely that each successive generation will have a higher standard of living than its predecessor—is a central theme in American literature and culture and plays a key role in the American dream. While social class in the United States is thought to be largely based on achievement, climbing the social ladder is more difficult for those born into less advantageous positions.[5][13] Occupation (perhaps the most important class component), educational attainment, and income can be increased through a lifetime. However, factors such as wealth inheritance and local education system—which often provides lower quality education to those in poor school districts[38]—may make rising out of poverty a challenge. Class mobility in the United States decreased between the 1970s and the 1990s.[39]
Social Mobility
Like many countries, the United States has a social class structure. Unlike most countries, though, except at the very highest level, it is possible for an American to move up to a higher social class one step, or one generation at a time. Immigrants from many countries have arrived by the millions, started at the bottom of the ladder, and within a generation or two have become part of the mainstream of American middle class life.
U.S. Social Security is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Tax deposits are formally entrusted to[3] Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, or Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The main part of the program is sometimes abbreviated OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) or RSDI (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). When initially signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of his New Deal, the term Social Security covered unemployment insurance as well. The term, in everyday speech, is used to refer only to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans. In 2004 the U.S. Social Security system paid out almost $500 billion in benefits.[4] By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world and the single greatest expenditure in the federal budget, with 20.9% for social security and 20.4% for Medicare/Medicaid, compared to 20.1% for military expenditure. [5] Social Security is currently the largest social insurance program in the U.S., constituting 37% of government expenditure and 7% of the gross domestic product[6] and is currently estimated to keep roughly 40% of all Americans age 65 or older out of poverty.[7] The Social Security Administration is headquartered in Woodlawn, Maryland, just to the west of Baltimore.
31. Health care in the United States is provided by many separate legal entities. Including private and public spending, more is spent per person on health care in the United States than in any other nation in the world.[1] A study of international health care spending levels published in the health policy journal Health Affairs in the year 2000, found that while the U.S. spends more on health care than other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the use of health care services in the U.S. is below the OECD median by most measures. The authors of the study conclude that the prices paid for health care services are much higher in the U.S.[2] In 1996, 5% of the population accounted for more than half of all costs.[3][4]
Active debate over health care reform in the United States concerns questions of a right to health care, access, fairness, efficiency, cost, and quality. The World Health Organization (WHO), in 2000, ranked the U.S. health care system as the highest in cost, first in responsiveness, 37th in overall performance, and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study).[5][6] The WHO study has been criticized in a study published in Health Affairs for its methodology and lack of correlation with user satisfaction ratings.[7] A 2008 report by the Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States last in the quality of health care among the 19 compared countries.[8] However, the U.S. is a leader in medical innovation, with three times higher per-capita spending than Europe.[9] The U.S. also has higher survival rates than most other countries for certain conditions, such as some less common cancers, but has a higher infant mortality rate than all other developed countries.[10]
As a proportion of GDP, public health care spending in the United States is larger than in most other large Western countries.[11] On top of that, there is substantial expenditure paid from private insurances. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the United States is the "only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage" (i.e. some kind of insurance).
Insurance in the United States refers to the market for risk in the United States of America. Insurance could be said to be
• the benefit provided by a particular kind of indemnity contract, called an insurance policy;
• that is issued by one of several kinds of legal entities (stock insurance company, mutual insurance company, reciprocal, or Lloyd's syndicate, for example), any of which may be called an insurer;
• in which the insurer promises to pay on behalf of or to indemnify another party, called a policyholder or insured; and
• that protects the insured against loss caused by those perils subject to the indemnity in exchange for consideration known as an insurance premium.
Various associations, government agencies, and companies serve the insurance industry in the United States. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners provides models for standard state insurance law, and provides services for its members, which are the state insurance divisions. Many insurance providers use the Insurance Services Office, which produces standard policy forms and rating loss costs and then submits these documents on the behalf of member insurers to the state insurance divisions.
In recent years this kind of operational definition proved inadequate as a result of contracts that had the form but not the substance of insurance. The essence of insurance is the transfer of risk from the insured to one or more insurers. How much risk a contract actually transfers proved to be at the heart of the controversy. This issue arose most clearly in reinsurance, where the use of Financial Reinsurance to reengineer insurer balance sheets under US GAAP became fashionable during the 1980s. The accounting profession raised serious concerns about the use of reinsurance in which little if any actual risk was transferred, and went on to address the issue in FAS 113, cited above. While on its face, FAS 113 is limited to accounting for reinsurance transactions, the guidance it contains is generally conceded to be equally applicable to US GAAP accounting for insurance transactions executed by commercial enterprises.
32
It is clear that women in America enjoy much more personal freedom and independence than women in many other parts of the world. This freedom is something we hold dear and one of the things that define contemporary American culture. However, it is also clear that many immigrants, coming from very different-thinking cultures, view such women with at least suspicion and at most contempt.
Here, females, just like males, are expected to move away from parents’ homes and set up on their own in order to prove themselves successful, fully functioning adults. True, a woman can more easily remain at home with her parents than a man can here, but past about age 25 others would begin to look at her askance. So expect the women here to live on their own, in apartments or homes that they own, and consider such a situation to mean simply that such a woman is an adult and that she can afford such accommodations.
Further, in many other places in the world, women are expected to hold marriage and children as their primary goals and interest. Here, women are generally more interested in these things than the men are, but they do not necessarily place them first on their “to do” lists. In America, a woman is just as likely to decide that her education, for instance, needs to be completed before she can consider marriage or family. She may decide that her career needs to develop to a certain point first. In short, an American woman may have the same kind of broad concerns about conducting her life that men have around the world. In the case of men, most folks would consider holding such priorities as prudent in preparing for life’s challenges, but women can still come under scrutiny for the same priorities. Here, it should not be surprising to find women delaying marriage and family into their thirties, forties or even fifties.
Independent women in America should be viewed through the same lens through which most folks would view men. A woman living on her own and conducting her own personal and professional business can run the whole gamut from dutiful, traditional and chaste to self-involved, nontraditional and sexually free. One would need to engage the individual woman in order to find out the truth.

33. The wealthier the community the more money they spend. The public schools are very much community schools. They must have local public support because citizen vote directly on how much they want to pay for school. There are a great many state , city or country-owned colleges and universities, and many are supported by states. Private universities are supported by private donations (endowments), special organizations and funds, tuition fee. Colleges and univer-s whether state or private are quite free to determine their own individual, admissions, requirements.
The responsibilities of the federal government toward education as they have evolved today are to provide encouragement, financial support and leadership. The Congress of the United States has constitutional powers to allocate funds for education, but it has no direct control over education. Several departments within the federal government (e.g., the Department of Defense and the Department of Agriculture) also make large expenditures on specific educational programs.
The state board of education determines educational policies in compliance with state laws. Board members are elected by the people or appointed by the state governor and usually serve for terms ranging from two to six years. They are empowered to formulate policies relating to educational affairs such as allocation of school funds, certification of teachers, textbooks, curricula, library services, sports facilities, and provision of records and educational statistics.
34.
General Pattern of Education in the USA
The general pattern of education in the USA is an eight-year elementary school, followed by a four-year high school. This has been called 8—4 plan organization. It is proceeded, in many localities, by nursery schools and kindergartens. It is followed by a four-year college and professional schools. This traditional pattern, however, has been varied in many different ways. The 6—3— 3 plan consists of a six-year elementary school, a three-year junior high school, and a three-year senior high school. Another variation is a 6—6 plan organization, with a six-year elementary school followed by a six-year secondary school.American education provides a program for children, beginning at the age of 6 and continuing up to the age of 16 in some of the states, and to 18 in others.
The elementary school in the United States is generally considered to include the first six or eight grades of the common-school system, depending upon the organization that has been accepted for the secondary school. It has been called the “grade school” or the “grammar school”.
There is no single governmental agency to prescribe for the American school system, different types of organization and of curriculum are tried out.
The length of the school year varies among the states. Wide variation exists also in the length of the school day. A common practice is to have school in session from 9:00 to 12:00 in the morning and from 1:00 to 3:30 in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. The school day for the lower grades is often from 30 minutes to an hour shorter. Most schools require some homework to be done by elementary pupils. Elementary Schools, High Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning
Elementary Schools, High Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning
There are eight years of elementary schooling. The elementary school is followed by four years of secondary school, or high school. Often the last two years of elementary and the first years of secondary school are combined into a junior high school.
The school year is nine months in length, beginning early in September and sometimes a shorter one in spring. There are slight variations from place to place. Students enter the first grade at the age of six and attendance is compulsory in most states until the age of sixteen or until the student has finished the eighth grade.
The elementary schools tend to be small. The high schools are generally larger and accommodate pupils from four or five elementary schools. A small town generally has several elementary schools and one high school. In some rural communities the one-room country school house still exists. Here may be found from five to twenty-five pupils in grades one through eight, all taught by the same teacher.
Admission to the American high school is automatic on completion of the elementary school. During the four-year high school program the student studies four or five major subjects per year, and classes in each of these subjects meet for an hour a day, five days a week. In addition, the student usually has classes in physical education, music, and art several times a week. If he fails a course, he repeats only that course and not the work of the entire year. Students must complete a certain number of courses in order to receive a diploma, or a certificate of graduation.
Institutions of higher learning supported by public funds are not absolutely free. The state colleges and universities charge a fee for tuition or registration. This fee is higher for those who come from outside the state. Working one’s way through college is commonplace.
Usually there is no admission examination required by a state university for those who have finished high school within the state. Sometimes a certain pattern of high school studies is necessary, however, and some state universities require a certain scholastic average, or average of high school grades.
Private colleges and universities, especially the larger, well-known ones such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, have rigid scholastic requirements for entrance, including an examination.
It usually takes four years to meet the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree.A Master of Arts or Master of Science degree may be obtained in one or two additional years.The highest academic degree is the Doctor of Philosophy.It may take any number of years to complete the original research work necessary to obtain this degree.
Higher Education Institutions
It has become common for the college program to be divided into broad fields,such as languages and literature,the social sciences,the sciences and mathematics, and the fine arts.Many colleges require all freshmen and sophomores to take one or two full-year courses in each of three fields.Certain Courses,such as English or history,may be required for all,with some election permitted in the other fields.
Higher educational institutions usually are governed by a board of regents or a board of trustees.
The executive head of a college or a university is usually called the president. The various colleges or schools which take up a university are headed by deans. Within a school or college there may be departments according to subject matter fields, each of which may be headed by a professor who is designated as department head or chairman. Other members of the faculty hold academic ranks, such as instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor. Graduate students who give some part-time service may be designated as graduate assistants or fellows.
Professional education in fields such as agriculture, dentistry, law, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, teaching, etc. is pursued in professional schools which may be part of a university or may be separate institutions which confine their instruction to a single profession. Often two, three, or four years of pre-professional liberal arts education are required before admission to a professional school. Three to five years of specialized training lead to professional degrees such as Doctor of Medicine, Bachelor of Law, etc.
Private and State Colleges and Universities
In general, higher education in the USA may be divided into two broad fields: liberal arts and professional. Each of these fields may be further subdivided into undergraduate and graduate levels. The liberal arts program, on the undergraduate level, may be a two-year junior college course, or a four-year course leading to a degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science. The four-year course is usually subdivided into a lower division (which may be called the junior college), consisting of the two first years, and the upper division, which is the last two years. The first two years continue the general education and specialization begins in the third year.

35. The American university system, like the primary and secondary education system, is largely decentralized, in large part because the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reserves all powers not granted to the federal government or explicitly denied to the U.S. states "for the States respectively, or to the people." Such a degree of autonomy in higher education is rare.
American universities have developed independent accreditation organizations to vouch for the quality of the degrees they offer. The accreditation agencies rate universities and colleges on criteria such as academic quality—the quality of their libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, and the degrees which their faculty hold. Nonaccredited institutions are perceived as lacking in quality and rigor, and may be termed diploma mills.
Two-year colleges (often but not always community colleges) usually offer the associate's degree such as an Associate of Arts (A.A.). Community colleges are often open admissions, with low tuition. Four-year colleges (which usually have a larger number of students and offer a greater range of studies than two-year colleges) offer the bachelor's degree, such as the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.). These are usually primarily undergraduate institutions, although some might have limited programs at the graduate level. Many students earn an associate's degree at a two-year institution before transferring to a four-year institution for another two years to earn a bachelor's degree.[7]
Four-year institutions in the U.S. which emphasize the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. These colleges traditionally emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions). They are known for being residential and for having smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges also encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student teaching assistants (TAs), who do teach classes at Research I and other universities. Most are private, although there are public liberal arts colleges.
Universities are research-oriented institutions which provide both undergraduate and graduate education. Graduate programs grant a variety of master's degrees—such as the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), or Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)—in addition to doctorates such as the Ph.D.
Some universities have professional schools, which are attended primarily by those who plan to be practitioners instead of academics (scholars/researchers). Examples include journalism school, business school, medical schools (which usually award the M.D.), law schools (J.D.), veterinary schools (D.V.M.), and dental schools.
Except for the United States service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate universities, although it can give federal grants to them. The majority of public universities are operated by the states and territories, usually as part of a state university system.
Many private universities also exist. Among these, some are secular while others are involved in religious education.
Most universities, public and private, have endowments.
The majority of both liberal arts colleges and public universities are coeducational; the number of women's colleges and men's colleges has dwindled in past years and nearly all remaining single-sex institutions are private liberal arts colleges.
36. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above.
The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was the first piece of United States federal legislation in regards to minority language speakers. The bill was introduced in 1967 by Texas senator Ralph Yarborough. Its purpose was to provide school districts with federal funds to establish educational programs for students with limited English speaking ability. The bill was originally intended for Spanish-speaking students, but in 1968 merged into the all-encompassing Bilingual Education Act or Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The act encouraged instruction in English and multicultural awareness in the wake of the Civil Rights movement although it did not require bilingual programs. The act also gave school districts the opportunity to provide bilingual education programs without violating segregation laws.
Reform efforts in the 1980s
In the 1980s, some of the momentum of education reform moved from the left to the right, with the release of A Nation at Risk, Ronald Reagan's efforts to reduce or eliminate the United States Department of Education. In the latter half of the decade, E.D. Hirsch put forth an influential attack on one or more versions of progressive education, advocating an emphasis on "cultural literacy"--the facts, phrases, and texts that Hirsch asserted every American had once known and that now only some knew, but was still essential for decoding basic texts and maintaining communication. Hirsch's ideas remain significant through the 1990s and into the 21st century, and are incorporated into classroom practice through textbooks and curricula published under his own imprint.
[edit] Reform efforts in the 1990s
Main article: Standards based education reform
Most states and districts in the 1990s adopted outcome-based education in some form or another. A state would create a committee to adopt standards, and choose a performance-based assessment to assess whether the students knew the required content or could perform the required tasks.
OBE reforms usually had other disputed methods, such as constructivist mathematics and whole language, larded onto them. Some proponents advocated replacing the traditional high school diploma with a Certificate of Initial Mastery. Other reform movements were school-to-work, which would require all students except those in a university track to spend substantial class time on a job site.
37. newspapers. About 9,12 newspapers are published today. They are divided into daily, Sunday and weekly depending on fact how often they are published. From the point of view of their content all papers are classified either as the quality or as the popular (yellow press). The wall street journal, usa today, the new york times.. there are about 11000 magazines and periodicals in the US. More than 4000 of them appear as monthly and over 1300 - each week. Some of them have international editions and translated into other languages.
The principles of journalism:
Separation of information from comments: opinion and political view points appear only on the editorial and opinion pages, insistence that views must be properly and fairly stated without intention to mislead the reader; dedication of press.

38. news agencies. 2 US agencies AP(associated press) and UPI (united press international). AP – is the oldest, it has reporters at 122 domestic and 65 foreign bureaus.
The Associated Press (AP) is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributive members of the cooperative.Associated Press also operates The Associated Press Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. The AP Radio also offers news and public affairs features, feeds of news sound bites, and long form coverage of major events.s part of their cooperative agreement with The Associated Press, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. The AP Stylebook has become the de facto standard for news writing in the United States and Canada. The AP employs the "inverted pyramid formula" for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the story's essential meaning and news information.
United Press International (UPI) is a news agency headquartered in the United States with roots dating back to 1907. Once a mainstay in the newswire service along with Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, it began to decline as afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fail with the rising popularity of television news. This decline accelerated after the sale of UPI by the founding Scripps family culminating in two bankruptcies.
In 2000, UPI was purchased by News World Communications, a media company owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.[1] The news wire's daily coverage today includes domestic and international top news, business, entertainment, sports, science, health and "Quirks in the News" through its NewsTrack service, as well as coverage and analysis of emerging threats, the security industry and energy resources. UPI's content is presented in text, video and photo formats. Its news stories are filed in English, Spanish and Arabic.
39.
TELEVISION IN THE USA

There are a lot of commercial and non-commercial stations. Most commercial stations are affiliated with one of the national commercial networks: ABC (American Broadcasting Company), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), or Fox Broadcasting Company. These networks are not television stations or channels or programs. They are not licensed to broadcast. Networks are essentially program distribution companies. They buy programs from independent television production companies and sell these programs to individual television stations. The network is paid by advertisers to insert commercial announcements on the program the network buys.

On the average, American viewers watch TV four hours a day, usually tuned to one of the national commercial networks: ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox Broadcasting Company. These stations attract about 98 percent of TV audiences. During a sixty-minute TV program, you can expect to see about twelve minutes of commercials.

The commercial networks broadcast a variety of shows: news, drama, soap operas, comedy, sports, music, movies, children`s programs, game shows, and talk shows. There is a lot of competition for viewers, especially during prime time, from 7 to 11 p.m. Ratings, published in the newspapers, measure the audience for the top ten programs.

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), supported by government and private funding, is the only noncommercial network. It broadcasts more serious drama, performing arts, science, public-affairs documentaries, and educational children`s programs. Sesame Street, the most popular children`s show on PBS, appears on TV stations all over the world. All five networks broadcast twenty-four hours a day.

Some viewers pay to receive a wider selection of programs on cable television. There are up to 500 cable stations. Two well-known ones are HBO (Home Box Office), which shows movies, and CNN (Cable News Network), which specializes in news.

All of the networks have nationwide news programs. All have regularly scheduled news series. Among the most popular are CBS`s Sixty Minutes and PBS`s The MacNeil\Lehrer Newshour. The world`s the most durable TV show is NBC`s Meet the Press. In this show, important political figures and leaders are interviewed by journalists.

All television stations in the US, public or private, must be licensed to broadcast by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent federal agency. Each license is given for a few years only.
Differences between Non-Commercial and Commercial Radio
Commercial is generally very easy for people to understand. Commercial Radio sells advertising using a sales force, charges promotional fees, and involves itself in many ways of profit making business.
Most people do not realize that Non-commercial FM stations are very similar in practice except that all of their income is turned back into the corporation for station growth, upgrades, repairs, salaries, etc. so that the station will never realize a profit. All income is re-invested into the corporation. Non -comms differ from commercial FM stations primarily in that they are not permitted to accept revenue in exchange for broadcasting "spots" (announcements advertising goods and services), yet they may charge for broadcasting programs. The licensee of a non-commercial educational FM station is expected to provide a broadcast schedule that is "non-commercial". Remember, the Congress ordered the FCC to find a way to reserve some channels in the new FM service for educational, instructional, and cultural purposes. The method chosen by the FCC requires that an applicant for one of the reserved channels form a non-profit that is educational in nature.
Presently, non-commercial educational stations may accept advertising for goods and services pro-vided by non-profit organizations. As well, they may receive underwriting and sponsorship spots from national and local businesses to pay for programming. Stations may accept donations from members of the general public and from businesses. Individual donors may be identified by their name, address and a description of their products and services. An example of the extent of this liberalization may be seen by viewing any non-commercial educational "public television" station. Non-commercial educational FM stations operated by churches, schools, and organizations interested in educational formats, have benefited from the FCC policy changes. Local businesses are now potential sources of revenue, and the station can now provide a useful promotional service in return. Programs produced by others may be broadcast, and the cost of airing the programs may be charged to the entity supplying the program.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute (see 47 U.S.C. § 151 and 47 U.S.C. § 154), and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six strategic goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the media, public safety and homeland security, and modernizing the FCC.[1]
As specified in section one of the Communications Act as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (amendment to 47 U.S.C. §151) it is the FCC's mission to "make available so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication services with adequate facilities at reasonable charges." The Act furthermore provides that the FCC was created "for the purpose of the national defense" and "for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communications."[4]
Consistent with the objectives of the Act as well as the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), the FCC has identified six long-term strategic goals in its 2006-2011 Strategic Plan. These are:
• Broadband: "All Americans should have affordable access to robust and reliable broadband products and services. Regulatory policies must promote technological neutrality, competition, investment, and innovation to ensure that broadband service providers have sufficient incentives to develop and offer such products and services."
• Competition:"Competition in the provision of communication services, both domestically and overseas, supports the Nation's economy. The competitive framework for communications services should foster innovation and offer consumers reliable, meaningful choice in affordable services."
• Spectrum:"Efficient and effective use of non-federal spectrum domestically and internationally promotes the growth and rapid development of innovative and efficient communication technologies and services."
• Media:"The Nation's media regulations must promote competition and diversity and facilitate the transition to digital modes of delivery"
• Public Safety and Homeland Security:"Communications during emergencies and crisis must be available for public safety, health, defence, and emergency personnel, as well as all consumers in need. The Nation's critical communications infrastructure must be reliable, interoperable, redundant, and rapidly restorable."
• Modernize the FCC:"The Commission shall strive to be highly productive, adaptive, and innovative organization that maximises the benefits to stakeholders, staff, and management from effective systems, processes, resources, and organizational culture."[5]