Privatizing Social Security .Critics of plans to privatize Social Security (pensions) in the US and turn them into individual accounts invested in the stock market have five main objections. First, that there is no crisis in the funding of social security. Second, that the reform would merely involve shifting retirement investments from the bonds currently held by the Social Security Trust Fund to stocks held in personal accounts, which would not produce any general economic benefits and could not sustain higher benefits across the board. Third, that personal accounts would imply benefit cuts for many retired people. Fourth, that survivors' and disability benefits would also be threatened. And finally, that the guarantee offered by the government is exchanged for the risk of the stock market. The Failed Critique of Personal Accounts by Peter Ferrara rebuts and responds to each of these arguments in turn. This paper should be read alongside materials from the Cato Institute's Social Security websitePublished by the Cato Institute.

By Cato Institute ,US.

Welfare and Social Security Policy Resource.

School Art: What's in it? Exploring Visual Arts in Secondary Schools. Based on interviews with 54 teachers in 18 schools and their descriptions of 64 art modules, this book explores the content of the secondary school art curriculum and why it looks the way it does. Commissioned by Arts Council England in association with Tate, it examines the range of approaches taken by different teachers and schools and asks whether there is a place for contemporary art practice. Its findings, and the questions that they raise, will be of interest to anyone teaching art, those training to do so, artists, gallery educators and people interested in the future of visual culture in this country. By Dick Downing and Ruth Watson.

By National Foundation for Educational Research, UK.

Education Policy Resource.