Chapter 12 Public Policy

Question 1

What is public policy?

Answer 1

the means by which the government addresses the needs of its citizens.

Question 2

Public policy entails protecting those

Answer 2

who cannot protect themselves

Question 3

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) runs

Answer 3

Child Protective Services (CPS).

Question 4

Despite its importance, DFPS has been severely understaffed, resulting in

Answer 4

“an unreasonable risk of harm [to children] caused by the state.”

Question 5

What is CPS’s job?

Answer 5

to investigate cases of child neglect or abuse and, when necessary, remove a child from parents’ custody and place the child in a relative’s home or in a foster home

Question 6

In 2011, a New York–based advocacy group brought

Answer 6

a class action suit on behalf of all children in long-term care in Texas

Question 7

In a 260-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Janis Jack of Corpus Christie found that

Answer 7

“excessive caseloads and overburdened caseworkers cause an unreasonable risk of harm” to foster children.

Question 8

Public policy remains mostly

Answer 8

the duty and the responsibility of the state

Question 9

What can the national government contribute?

Answer 9

funds and regulate aspects of public-policy areas.

Question 10

It has shifted overtime.

Answer 10

The balance of power between state and federal government

Question 11

Public policy refers to the outputs of

Answer 11

governmental institutions

Question 12

Public policies can be found in laws passed by

Answer 12

legislative bodies, rules, regulations, and orders from public agencies.

Question 13

What is problem identification?

Answer 13

Identifying a systemic agenda, in which issues are commonly perceived as involving matters within governmental authority

Question 14

What is an example of problem identification?

Answer 14

The problem of poverty

Question 15

What is policy formulation?

Answer 15

Clarifying general ideas about specifically defined problems and developing strategies for dealing with these problems

Question 16

What is an example of policy formulation?

Answer 16

Institutional agenda setting

Question 17

What is a systemic agenda (Roger Cobb and Charles Elder):

Answer 17

): agenda in which all issues are “commonly perceived by members of the political community as meriting public attention and as involving matters within the legitimate jurisdiction of existing governmental authority”

Question 18

If we view the problem of poverty as one of limited income, we might

Answer 18

Increase welfare payments

Question 19

If we view poverty as behavior that causes people to be poor, such as unwillingness to work,

Answer 19

we might focus on encouraging work and education

Question 20

What plays a major role in defining public policy making?

Answer 20

Our ideology—our ideas, concepts, and visions about how society works

Question 21

What does policy formulation involve?

Answer 21

detailed procedures in passing legislation and making administrative rules and regulations.

Question 22

When a process of an institutional agenda setting takes place,

Answer 22

interest group access allows them to help set the agenda and what problems will be discussed, how they will be understood, and what measures should be taken.

Question 23

When public policy must be put into effect by government.

Answer 23

Implementation

Question 24

Identifying the appropriate agency to implement a program is crucial at this stage, and budgetary policy plays a major role.

Answer 24

Implementation

Question 25

When policies must be evaluated for effectiveness.

Answer 25

Evaluation

Question 26

Good evaluation can allow for a rethinking of the policy and of the strategies employed.

Answer 26

Evaluation

Question 27

Well-formulated public policy can be dashed by

Answer 27

poorly executed or poorly funded implementation

Question 28

Good evaluation of a public policy assesses

Answer 28

the stated goals against the actual outcomes of the policy as implemented

Question 29

Some political scientists suggest another stage in the policy-making process:

Answer 29

legitimation, in which a particular policy initiative is established and recognized as legal and constitutional. This may be better understood as something that takes place throughout the entire policy-making process

Question 30

What is rationality?

Answer 30

clearly identified goals and the aim of achieving them in an optimal or efficient manner

Question 31

How does rationality help efficiency?

Answer 31

maximizing the outputs of government with minimum resources

Question 32

What factors work against rationality?

Answer 32

governments that tend to work incrementally, and policy makers' rationality may be a " bounded rationality". (they seek to "satisfice"

Question 33

What is "bounded rationality"?

Answer 33

the idea in policy making that decision makers may seek satisfactory solutions to problems that are not necessarily optimal or efficient

Question 34

What problems of education does Texas face?

Answer 34

There is no single dominating problem in education. Texas ranks 45th on public expenditures per enrolled student. The population of students is increasingly minority and disadvantaged, and Texas has high dropout rates.

Question 35

What did the Gilmer-Aikin Laws establish, in Texas?

Answer 35

A framework for educational policy

Question 36

In Texas, how many students enrolled in public schools, in 2018 and came second to California?

Answer 36

5.5 million

Question 37

How many teachers do Texas school districts employ?

Answer 37

342,000

Question 38

education reform legislation passed in 1949 that supplemented local funding of education with public monies, raised teachers’ salaries, mandated a minimum length for the school year, and provided for more state supervision of public education

Answer 38

Gilmer Aikin Laws

Question 39

The State Board of Education, now the Texas Education Agency (TEA), became

Answer 39

the policy-making body for public education in the state, selecting budgets, establishing regulations for school accreditation, purchasing textbooks, and investing in the Permanent School Fund.

Question 40

How much money in state General Revenue monies went to public education?

Answer 40

$40.3 billion

Question 41

How many school districts are there in Texas?

Answer 41

over 1,023 with 8,096 schools

Question 42

Expenditure per pupil is

Answer 42

below the national average

Question 43

What is the largest school district in Texas?

Answer 43

Houston Independent School District

Question 44

Some education issues in Texas include

Answer 44

expenditure per pupil, the high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, and the dropout rate.

Question 45

the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-imposed segregation in schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Answer 45

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Question 46

It was hampered by political opposition.

Answer 46

Desegregation

Question 47

What is de facto?

Answer 47

in fact, or in effect, whether by right or not

Question 48

What is de jure?

Answer 48

the legal separation of groups based on the law.

Question 49

What have other court cases effected in Texas in the past 30 years?

Answer 49

Education policy and politics

Question 50

This involved the constitutionality of using property taxes to fund public schools.

Answer 50

San Antonio v. Rodríguez

Question 51

The district court ruled Texas’s school finance system unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, but the decision was overturned on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. It was a question of equitable funding

Answer 51

San Antonio v. Rodríguez

Question 52

What did lawyers argue about in San Antonio v. Rodriguez

Answer 52

the system of financing public schools was unfair because the value of property subject to taxation was far different from one school district to the next, enabling the Edgewood school district to raise $37 per pupil, while the neighboring district of Alamo Heights raised $413 per pupil.

Question 53

the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing citizens the “equal protection of the laws”; this clause has been the basis for the civil rights of African Americans, women, and other groups.

Answer 53

The Equal Protection Clause

Question 54

considered whether funding public schools through local property taxes fulfilled the Texas Constitution’s provisions.

Answer 54

Edgewood ISD v. Kirby (1989)

Question 55

It constituted an "efficient system of free public schools" and the Texas Supreme court held that the funding system was in violation of the state constitution, touching off a political firestorm.

Answer 55

Edgewood ISD v. Kirby (1989)

Question 56

How was Edgewood different than Rodriguez?

Answer 56

Edgewood focused on the state’s own constitution rather than the U.S. Constitution

Question 57

“A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of free public schools.”

Answer 57

Article 7, Section 1

Question 58

The plaintiffs argued that the state’s reliance on local property taxes discriminated against

Answer 58

poor children by denying them equal opportunities in education.

Question 59

What is the role of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)?

Answer 59

to protect and defend the rights of all Latinos living in the United States and the constitutional rights of all Americans.

Question 60

​The Robin Hood Plan is an attempt to equalize funding among

Answer 60

public schools

Question 61

Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the legislature responded with various funding plans such as

Answer 61

The Robin Hood plan which had funds transferred from the rich to the poor districts. General revenue monies are now used to address some of the inequities of the system.

Question 62

Funding in public education is still

Answer 62

unresolved to some degree

Question 63

In 2017, legislators cut _____ million from general revenue funding of public education and refused to spend an additional _____ to prevent the lowering of per student funding

Answer 63

$600 million ; $4 billion

Question 64

In 2006, a compromise was crafted that finally put post–Robin Hood constitutional concerns about public financing to rest. It cut property taxes by ____third and replaced lost revenues with money raised statewide by an expanded business tax and a new ____ per-pack tax on cigarettes.

Answer 64

1/3 ; $1

Question 65

In 2008, the state covered _____ of the cost of public education. By 2019, state support had dropped to ____.

Answer 65

48.5 percent ; 38 percent.

Question 66

In the 1980s, the Texas debate was actually part of

Answer 66

a larger national debate over education.

Question 67

Who established the Select Committee on Public Education (SCOPE)?

Answer 67

The legislature

Question 68

In 1984, SCOPE presented ___ recommendations for reform.

Answer 68

140

Question 69

A second round of debate in 1995 led to

Answer 69

new reforms focused on local control and on school accountability.

Question 70

Among the most controversial of the SCOPE recommendations was

Answer 70

“No Pass, No Play”

Question 71

In "No Pass, No Play",

Answer 71

students who failed to earn a grade of 70 or more would be unable to participate in any extracurricular activities.

Question 72

What are “Perot reforms”?

Answer 72

Other proposals involved new standards for attendance and performance; annual school performance reports and tighter accreditation standards—and related penalties; a longer school year; and a professional career ladder for teachers, tying raises to performance

Question 73

The reforms following debate in the 1995 legislative session are known as

Answer 73

the Bush reforms for Governor George W. Bush

Question 74

Local control was increased by

Answer 74

limiting the power of the TEA

Question 75

What are the controversial issues the reform movement in public education, in Texas, continues to face?

Answer 75

Accountability through testing School choice Statewide assessment standards School accountability

Question 76

Failure rates following the flurry of reform continuing through the 2000s stayed stubbornly high, and support among

Answer 76

business and political elites for testing as a reform method has collapsed.

Question 77

What schools are promoting competition among other schools?

Answer 77

Charter schools

Question 78

What remains low with teachers among minority students?

Answer 78

Salaries, state spending, test scores

Question 79

What were the SAT scores in Texas compared to the national average?

Answer 79

Texas: 513 in reading, 507 in math / National Average: 533 in reading, 527 in math.

Question 80

Despite implementation of new assessments, overall student performance

Answer 80

stayed flat or fell on various tests.

Question 81

More disturbingly, there appeared to be a growing “achievement gap” as

Answer 81

minorities and at-risk students failed at higher rates than whites in consecutive iterations of the tests.

Question 82

The dropout rate in grades _ through _ has been declining, but it has remained high among minorities.

Answer 82

7 ; 12

Question 83

With more rigorous assessments such as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), overall student performance has

Answer 83

stayed flat or fallen, and a growing “achievement gap” has appeared, whereby minority and at-risk students are failing at higher rates than white students.

Question 84

Unlike charters, vouchers increased in

Answer 84

competition and student/parental choice