SLG TERMS EXAM NOW

Exurbs

"Municipalities in rural areas that ring suburbs. They typically serve as bedroom communities for the prosperous, providing rural homes with easy access to urban areas."

Departments of Education

State-level agencies responsible for overseeing public education

Probation

Supervised punishment in the community

Sprawl

The rapid growth of a metropolitan area, typically as a result of specific types of zoning and development

Home Rule

The right of a locality to self-government, usually granted through a charter.

Commission-Administrator System

a form of country governance in which executive and legislative powers reside with an elected commission, which hires professional executive to manage the day-to-day operations of government.

Metropolitan Area

a populous region typically comprising a city and surrounding communities that have a high degree of social and economic integration

School Boards

elected or appointed bodies that determine major policies and budgets for school districts

Impact Fees

fees that municipalities charge builders of new housing or commercial developments to help offset the costs of extending services

Common Law

law composed of judges' legal opinions that reflect community practices and evolves over time.

Parole

supervised early release from prison

Mayor

the elected chief executive of a municipality

Medicare

the federal health insurance program for elderly citizens

Accreditation

A certification process in which outside experts visit a school or college to evaluate whether it is meeting minimum quality standards

Charter

A document that gives the holder the right to organize settlements in an area

County Commission System

A form of county governance in which executive, legislative, and administrative powers are vested in elected commissioners.

Council-Executive System

A form of county governance in which legislative powers are vested in a county commission and executive powers are vested in an independently elected executive.

City Commission System

A form of municipal governance in which executive, legislative, and administrative powers are vested in elected city commissioners.

Council-Manager System

A form of municipal governance in which the day-to-day administration of government is carried out by a professional administrator.

Mayor Council System

A form of municipal governance in which there is an elected executive and an elected legislature.

Interjurisdictional Agreement (IJA)

A formal or informal agreement between two or more local governments to cooperate on a program or policy

Entitlement Program

A government-run program that guarantees unlimited assistance to those who meet its eligibility requirements, no matter how high the cost

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

A joint federal-state program designed to expand health care coverage to children whose parents earn income above the poverty line but still are too poor to afford insurance

Medicaid

A joint state-federal program that provides medical care to the poor (including indigent elderly persons in nursing homes). The program is funded out of general government revenues.

City Council

A municipality's legislature

Regional Council

A planning and advisory organization whose members include multiple local governments; often used to administer state and federal programs that target regions

Stop and Frisk

A police tactic that allows police officers to stop, question, and search citizens under a set of narrowly defined circumstances.

Car-Dependent Living

A situation in which owning a car for transportation is a necessity; an outcome of low-density development.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

An area with a city of 50,000 or more people, together with adjacent urban communities that have strong ties to the central city.

Managed Care

An arrangement for the provision of health care whereby an agency acts as an intermediary between consumers and health care providers.

Common Core State Standards

An education initiative that has created a uniform set of learning expectations in English and math for students at the end of each grade. Although participation is voluntary, most states have joined this initiative. A number of states have since rolled back or repealed their participation.

City Manager

An official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a council-manager form of city government.

Megaregion

An urban area made up of several large cities and their surrounding urban areas that creates an interlocking economic and social system

Leapfrog Development

Development practices in which new developments jump - or leapfrog - over established developments, leaving undeveloped or underdeveloped land between developed areas.

Low Density Development

Development practices that spread (rather than concentrate) populations across the land

No Child Left Behind Act

Federal law enacted in January 2002 that introduced new accountability measures for elementary and secondary schools in all states that wish to receive federal aid.

Elementary and Secondary Education ACT (ESEA)

Federal law passed in 1965 as part of President Johnson's Great Society initiative; steered federal funds to improve local schools, particularly those attended primarily by low-income and minority students

Counties

Geographical subdivisions of state government

Special Districts

Local governmental units created for a single purpose, such as water distribution

Municipalities

Political jurisdictions, such as cities, villages, or towns, incorporated under state law to provide governance to defined geographical areas; more compact and more densely populated than counties.

Charter Schools

Public schools, often with unique themes, managed by teachers, principals, social workers, or nonprofit groups. The charter school movement was launched in the early 1990s

Public Health

The area of medicine that deals with the protection and improvement of citizen health and hygiene through government agencies.

Annexation

The legal incorporation of one jurisdiction or territory into another

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

The next-generation welfare program (passed in 1996) that provides federal assistance in the form of block grants to states, which have great flexibility in designing their programs

Gentrification

The physical rehabilitation of urban areas, which attracts investment from developers and drives up property values.

State Board of Education

Top policymaking body for education in each of the 50 states, usually consisting of appointees selected by the governor

Urban Growth Boundary

a border established around an urban area that is intended to control the density and type of development

Edgeless Cities

office and retail complexes without clear boundaries

Zoning Laws

regulations that control how land can be used

Dillon's Rule

the legal principle that says local governments can exercise only the powers granted to them by the state government