Examine school-based health clinics and the political considerations and strategies that can help them succeed!The Politics of Youth, Sex, and Health Care in American Schools reveals the history and political dynamics involved in building and sustaining an important innovation in the way health care services are delivered to America's youth: the school-based health clinic. These clinics provide vital health services--including crucial yet controversial reproductive services--to youth. In addition to analyzing the nature and extent of the political barriers facing school-based clinics, this vital book describes the strategies that have proven most effective in overcoming them.This essential book begins with an overview of the existing literature on the history and provision of health care for youth. Then it presents the results of a study that utilized a two-pronged approach: a nationwide survey of clinic administrators (supplemented with aggregate data) and intensive case studies of five representative locales. By combining the quantitative data from the national survey with the more qualitative information gleaned from the case study field work, The Politics of Youth, Sex, and Health Care in American Schools can deliver broad yet accurate generalizations as well as detailed interpretation of the authors'findings.This informative and insightful volume explores: the ways that school-based health clinics (SBHCs) have evolved, confronted opposition, and grown day-to-day issues that SBHCs face, including inadequate funding, lack of parental involvement, unsupportive teachers and schools, staffing/training issues, cultural issues, and more sources of opposition to SBHCs, including fundamentalist Protestants, Black Evangelicals, Catholics, and conservative parent groups ways to establish successful school health care reforms issues and recommendations for SBHCs in the future To date, there have been very few empirical studies of the politics of school health or of the provision of sexuality-related health services for youth. The greatest depth and breadth of information you can find on the subject is here, in The Politics of Youth, Sex, and Health Care in American Schools.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s improved the political and legal status of African Americans, but the quest for equality in employment and economic well-being has lagged behind. Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to be employed in lower-paying service jobs or to be unemployed, are three times as likely to live in poverty, and have a median household income barely half of that for white households. What accounts for these disparities, and what possibilities are there for overcoming obstacles to black economic progress? This book seeks answers to these questions through a combined quantitative and qualitative study of six municipalities in Florida.

Factors impeding the quest for equality include employer discrimination, inadequate education, increasing competition for jobs from white females and Latinos, and a lack of transportation, job training, affordable childcare, and other sources of support, which makes it difficult for blacks to compete effectively. Among factors aiding in the quest is the impact of black political power in enhancing opportunities for African Americans in municipal employment.

The authors conclude by proposing a variety of ameliorative measures: strict enforcement of antidiscrimination laws; public policies to provide disadvantaged people with a good education, adequate shelter and food, and decent jobs; and self-help efforts by blacks to counter self-destructive attitudes and activities.