Education Policy Why Public Education US was created during Enlightenment period o Public education thought as the best means to foster democracy among citizens The Value of Public Education and an Enlightened Citizenry Educations increases economic productivity Educational opportunity reduces the income gap The Governance Structure of Education in the US Public education not mentioned in US Constitution o State and local control has led to variation in public education Traditionally a State and Local Function o School districts organized East Coast County city township Midwest West Independent municipal boundaries Variations in School Governance Finance o Property taxes Local taxes on residential and commercial property which was how schools were funded in the past Dependable Problem 1 Changes in property values produce changes in school revenues 2 Property taxes are a source of political conflict o People want lower taxes less funding for schools and vice versa o State contribution State income taxes Some argue preferable to sales tax because they are progressive State sales tax Criticized because it s regressive Adjusts to increases in spending o National intervention products 1940s School lunches to fight malnutrition sold farm 1959 In response to Space Race funding for STEM 1965 Johnson Administration s passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 ESEA Provided benefits for school districts throughout the nation but its major intent was to increase funding in poor and urban areas 1979 US Department of Education created Political tool for parties Education Quality in the US US Scores Rising Arguments why o Scores have been rising but not at the rate of other leading nations o Yet the US puts more into education o Rise in national government intervention has led to spending on things not directly involved with education Equalizing opportunities for minorities o Schools spend too much time performing parenting tasks o Bureaucratic school systems spend too much on staff Federal Education Policy after Sputnik Sputnik launched o NASA created o National Defense Education Act passed Provided schools with federal money to stockpile microscopes chemicals slide rules etc Only for public schools Segregationist The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 ESEA Johnson administration Goal Reduce educational differences between the poor and larger public 5 titles o Title I Set stage for federal role in redistributing education resources to the poor Most controversial 1994 Clinton administration passed the Improving of America s Schools Act IASA Provide education that was less focused on rote learning and standardized test taking and more focused on activities like reading novels conducting experiments etc No Child Left Behind 2001 GWB Strengthened the role of the national government in public education by using the typical carrot of the federal funding as an incentive for schools to achieve certain goals o Measured adequate yearly progress Statewide accountability system to determine how well students meet those accountability measures each year o Increased teacher specialization o Increased parental role Gave parents more information about children s and school s performance o Standards and Assessment Assured state governments were adopting challenging academic standards for their students Critics o Leads to teaching the test o Test based teaching diminishes schools efforts to teach most talented students The Race to the Top Obama States compete for grants o Give states incentives to adopt programs that would help students do well in college the workplace etc NCLB is an ex of top down policy making national government imposed standards and rewarded states based on if they met those standards The Battle Over Educational Content The Anti Evolution Movement o Scopes Monkey Trial Case fought over the Butler Law a Tennessee law that outlawed teaching evolution and required that a creation based theory be taught Scopes convicted o Epperson vs Arkansas SC ruled that the ban on teaching evolution was religious and thus contravened the Establishment Clause o Edwards vs Aguillard Struck down Louisiana law that required instructors teaching evolution to also teach the creation science theory o The Dover PA Case In 2005 the Dover PA school board required teachers to read a statement about intelligent design prior to discussing evolution in their classrooms Ruled that intelligent design did not meet the standards of Pressures on Teachers scientific inquiry o Teachers who are creation orientated spend less time teaching evolution o Teachers who are not creation orientated also spend less time teaching evolution because of concerns with violating community norms Delegation of Problems in Public Schools The Demand to Fulfill Multiple Roles o Schools are expected to act as surrogate parents public safety officers medical providers nutritionists etc o Most obvious place to address youth issues is schools ex malnutrition Principal Agent Problems in Educational Performance o Problem of delegation national government delegates schools and their agents teachers to address problems No realistic assessment on how to complete task Costly o Teachers can refuse to complete task ex Dover PA Teachers won Policy implementation Gov must hire unelected bureaucrats teachers to carry out implemented policies classic agency problem Finding teachers who share true policy ideals is challenging and illegal o No matter what a legislator does they suffer a loss teachers have more power Bureaucratic drift The tendency for bureaucrats teachers to enact policies that deviate from those set by the political coalition that offered them o There exists information asymmetry between teachers and legislators because teachers have professional expertise and skill and thus know more about how to teach than legislators o Political uncertainty The uncertainty that exists between a policy and its outcomes The Push for Early Childhood Education Head Start o Created by Johnston administration o Designed to give preschool training for the children of people who live at or below the poverty line o Research found no effect o Spillover effects Greater likelihood of completing high school attending college less likelihood of being charged w a crime Pre kindergarten Expansions o Oklahoma created universal pre kindergarten for its children in 1998 o Strong short term effects for minorities o Little long term effects Education
View Full Document
Unlocking...