POLS207 Chapter 12

Describe the range and variety within the concept of policy.

Policy: The positions and/or actions that result when government takes a formal position on a matter at hand.

Policy can be broad/specific, any combination of principles/promises/action, consistent/inconsistent, serve a select few or many.

Explain how silence can be a policy and how it achieves its intended outcome. Do the same for "doing nothing" as a policy.

Silence:

- Silence denies legitimacy to a cause and its advocates

- Silence leverages the short attention span of Americans

- An issue ignored can quickly become an issue forgotten by enough people that the status quo will not change

Doing Nothing:

- All words and no action = no actual change

- Reasons can be partisan (forcing opponents to act) or incidental (budget shortfalls, too many bills, etc.)

- Also leverages the short attention span of Americans

Describe the range and variety within the concept of policy.

Policy: The positions and/or actions that result when government takes a formal position on a matter at hand.

Policy can be broad/specific, any combination of principles/promises/action, consistent/inconsistent, serve a select few or many.

Explain how silence can be a policy and how it achieves its intended outcome. Do the same for "doing nothing" as a policy.

Silence:

- Silence denies legitimacy to a cause and its advocates

- Silence leverages the short attention span of Americans

- An issue ignored can quickly become an issue forgotten by enough people that the status quo will not change

Doing Nothing:

- All words and no action = no actual change

- Reasons can be partisan (forcing opponents to act) or incidental (budget shortfalls, too many bills, etc.)

- Also leverages the short attention span of Americans

Discuss the policy cycle along with pertinent examples and questions at each step.

People Shape Policy:

- People: Elected officials, parties, donors, etc.

- Shape: Legislating, lobbying, donating, etc.

- Policy: Budgets, Laws, Rules, etc.

Policy Impacts People

Explain the components of the 3-P analysis framework, its objectives, examples of each component, and how it overlays the policy cycle.

Principles: (beliefs)

- Rule of law (rule breakers should be punished)

- Fairness (wait your turn)

- Diversity

- Security (safety of citizens)

- Stasis (keep things as they are)

- Compassion

- Sharing (allowing "mine" to become "ours")

Practicalities: (facts)

- Not at fault (dreamers brought illegally to the US as children)

- Their self-identity is American (deportation would be cruel)

- There are about 2 million in the US

- They contribute to society (higher rates of employment)

People:

- Matter LEAST when they are unknown

- Matter LESS when they are "them"

- Matter MORE when they are "us"

- Matter MOST when they could be "me"

Describe the basic policy questions when it comes to poverty, healthcare, education, and immigration policy answered by states in general, and by Texas specifically.

Poverty:

- More or less assistance? To whom? (less assistance, focus on kids and pregnant moms)

Healthcare:

- More or less coverage? For whom? (less coverage, focus on kids and elderly)

Education:

- More or less funding? For whom? (less funding, focused on richer districts)

Explain how recognizing our own areas of advantage and disadvantage in society can be important when considering policy options.

We must recognize how our race, ethnicity, and religious background can affect the outcomes of life situations.

Discuss the connections between winning, losing, and worth.

Elites win more often in government and politics. This is a reflection of social rules in our society. Regardless of our socio-economic status, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. we all operate in a culture with winners and losers. It becomes a game of winners get more, losers are treated unequally.

Describe how our policy preferences can depend on our knowledge of who is not winning and why this is so.

Principles: Policy needs deliberate direction and intent

Practicalities: Policy needs to work well and not break

People: They are the source and reason of government

Explain the concept of poverty as both a relative and ubiquitous condition.

Poverty:

- It is a relative condition (someone I see as in poverty might not see themselves the same way)

- It occurs in all races and all countries

- It's the lower end of the economic spectrum

- There is generational (enduring phenomenon for over 2 generations) and situational (circumstance drive) poverty

- Not just about too little money (could be about how people think, dream, and interact with society)

Compare and contrast generational and situational poverty and their non-monetary effects.

Generational: Enduring phenomenon for over 2 generations

Situational: Circumstance driven poverty.

Describe how hidden rules work and are different based on one's socio-economic status.

Hidden rules examples:

- Poverty: Quantity is important (did you have enough?)

- Middle Class: Quality is important (did you like it?)

Wealth: Presentation is important (was it presented well?)

People raised in poverty will be out of place in schools and business because those rules are of the middle-class.

Define the poverty measure used by the federal and state governments, then describe the problems associated with it, how they came about, and why they likely won't be fixed soon.

Federal Poverty Line is an outdated measure based on tripling the cost of buying food for a year in 1963, then adjusted every year for inflation. The issue is major expenses now include housing, transportation, healthcare, and childcare (not food). This measure underestimates people under poverty line. Politicians don't want to fix it because it would increase count of impoverished people significantly.

Explain what Francis Deviney's group devised as an alternative measure of poverty and how it compared to the official measure.

Their group considered adding $4,320 for each additional person to the previous federal poverty line.

Characterize the prevalence of official poverty among wage workers and the education levels of those who are officially impoverished.

3.6 million American workers are paid at or below minimum wage. Education doesn't always provide guaranteed protection against poverty. Most people in the poverty workforce only received a high school degree.

Describe the general frequency of residents making at or less than the poverty line, as well as between the poverty line and 2-times that amount in the 10 states with the most low-wage workers.

The addition of people making under 100% and under 200% of the poverty line usually makes up around 75% of total workers in that state. Most people lie between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty line.

Describe what a "low-wage" job is and how low-wage differs from minimum-wage.

Begin with FPL for a family of 4, divide by 2080 (number of work hours in a year). Any wage below $12/hour was considered low-wage. This shows that minimum-wage is far too low for a family to survive.

Describe the prevalence of low-wage jobs in Texas and how the lack of full-time hours and absence of benefits contributes to poverty in Texas.

Many impoverished Texans have full time jobs or multiple part-time jobs. Over 25% of jobs in Texas are low-wage. Only 8 other states have more low-wage jobs.

Explain the disconnect between overall economic health of Texas and the economic security of its residents.

Part time jobs only offer 15-30 hours per week and no benefits. Very few low-wage employees can afford the basics (housing, childcare, food, etc.). Texas ranked #1 in recovery, but #37 in security.

Define liquid-asset poor and how this is a problem for even middle-class families.

49.8% of households were "liquid asset poor" (lack enough savings to pay for 3 months of basic expenses in case of crisis). Nearly one-third of middle-class households ($54K-$91K annually) were only one crisis away from poverty.

Describe the concerns of demographers connecting the changes in the makeup of Texas related to ethnicity, education quality, and economic potential.

Texas' population is increasingly more Hispanic and less white. Hispanics will account for 70% of increase over the next 25 years. The issue is, Hispanic population is less healthy and less educated than whites, so Texas will become poorer, less educated, and less prosperous.

List the standard policy tools used by states in varying degrees to address poverty among their residents.

Boost welfare programs

Increase wages

Increase education opportunities

Provide basic healthcare

Characterize the count and rate measures of poverty between 1960 and 2014. Explain the differences between the two measures over this same period.

The number of people in poverty is far higher and increases higher than the percent population in poverty as time goes on.

Characterize the poverty rate by race and ethnicity, as well as by age group, over the same period from 1960-2014.

African Americans have the highest rate of poverty

Anglos have the lowest rate

Hispanic is in the middle.

During 9/11 there was a huge spike in poverty.

65 and older: had the highest percent of poverty but it became the lowest

18 to 64: lowest percent of poverty

18 and under have the highest rate of poverty.

Describe in which regions of the US were the states with the highest and lowest rates of poverty.

Texas poverty rate of 15.9% ranked 39th in the U.S. Southern states tend to have higher poverty rates than northern states.

Describe where Texas ranked in percent population in poverty among US states in 2014 and the state's overall, deep, and child poverty rates in the same year.

37th

Overall Poverty: 15.9%

Deep Poverty: 6.6%

Child Poverty: 23%

Explain why poverty rates are often unexpectedly high in college towns.

Since students are represented in a county, there won't be a fair representation of the need of non-student residents in a county. Non-student residents don't get the necessary attention.

Explain the correlations between welfare-related spending and poverty rates in the US states, as well as what this can mean about the effectiveness of poverty reduction efforts?

Medicaid spending per beneficiary: -0.41

TANF benefit level: -0.63

SNAP benefit level: -0.7

CHIP spending per recipient: -0.14

This says that clearly reduction efforts are not effective.

Describe how TANF worked in Texas in 2012: who was eligible, how much assistance they could receive. Compare this to neighboring states that border Texas.

Texas families could receive up to $401 a week, which is one of the lowest in the country. The south has a very low TANF payout. This is the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at minimum wage.

Explain how TANF functions as a federal block grant and where and why Texas chooses to allocate and not allocate its TANF funds. Discuss how Texas compares to other states and the recent trends in Texas TANF spending.

Since it's a federal block grant, Texas has a wide latitude in deciding how they use their funds. Each state is required to chip in an amount ($400M for Texas). Texas uses TANF to fund programs that improve welfare of children in poverty. Texas minimizes cash assistance to adults.

Explain how inflation has affected TANF block grants since 1977, when they started.

The annual deferral TANF block grant has been frozen since its creation in 1997 and lost more than a third of its value due to inflation.

Characterize how families on TANF or TANF and SNAP were faring as %s of the federal poverty level in Texas and other regions of the US.

Maximum TANF benefits leave families well below the poverty line, 10 to 20% of FPL. Likewise, Texas ranks in the lowest 10 states whose benefits fall far below poverty line.

Describe key questions that are important to consider when evaluating current or future poverty-reduction policies.

Who do you help (by age, gender, and income), and how do you help them (monthly or annually, direct or indirect)? How livable is a family's income level after counting in all forms of assistance. How much do we rely on the private market.

Describe the various influences that can affect our attitudes about social-safety-net policies.

Most importantly, Conservative vs. Liberal

But Also:

Religious beliefs

Moral convictions

Awareness of facts & associated math

Personal knowledge or involvement of individuals in need

Understanding of our economic system

List actions that individuals can take to become better informed about poverty and its impact in their state and locality.

Make friends with people who struggle to make a living

Listen to what they say

Become involved in their lives

Evaluate your own assumptions of people in poverty

Ask yourself what policy would best help those people

Inspect other proposals using the 3-P framework

Describe the difference between viewing healthcare as a privilege vs. a right.

Healthcare is a privilege because it is so expensive. If you have money you can get healthcare. If you don't, you hope for government assistance.

Compare and contrast the private care model and the socialized care model.

Most individuals in the U.S. who receive medical care are personally responsible to pay the actual cost (private care). In the socialized care model, the government collects extra taxes and covers the costs, but the government decides what care to provide and when.

Explain how most Americans that can afford healthcare manage to do so.

If you cannot afford to pay the full cost of healthcare, many pay separately for health insurance. However, the affordability of health insurance is not guaranteed.

Describe how healthcare insurance works in general.

Healthcare insurance is good because medical bills can be highly unpredictable and very expensive. Money is pooled from masses of people, and when someone has a huge bill, the money is payed from that pool with minimal out of pocket costs for that individual.

Explain what healthcare insurance companies must consider carefully to stay in business.

The governing principal of private insurance is to make a profit (their caring can be genuine, but it has to also mean profit).

Four Factors:

- How many policies are in force

- How sick the people are with those policies

- How much they agree to pay to medical providers

- How much they charge customers for new or renewed policies

List and explain the various costs associated with healthcare insurance and how these usually vary with low-cost vs. high-cost policies.

Medical insurance only helps to pay some of a person's medical policies. High-cost policies cover more, lower-cost policies cover less. It's all still very expensive.

Explain how individuals with healthcare insurance can still end up paying directly for some of their healthcare.

Before you hit your deductible, you pay every cost, after that you share costs with the insurance company, after you reach your out-of-pocket maximum the insurance company will pay every single cost.

Explain the risks of HDP health insurance.

The only benefit of HDP insurance is to guard you against catastrophic bills resulting from serious injury. But if you don't have these accidents, you will end up paying a ton of money for something you aren't even using.

Using the 2013 Milliman Medical Index, describe the different parts of their breakdown of annual medical costs for a middle-class family of four, and who pays for each part. Characterize the overall and component costs.

For a family of 4, average costs of healthcare was $22,030. Employers might help pay the premium, but that is not guaranteed. The employee's out-of-pocket cost is $3,600 (roughly the cost of gas for a year), and employer contribution is $9,144 (roughly the same as a years worth of groceries).

Explain the nature and size of the increase in medical costs for that same notional family between 2002 and 2013.

Healthcare costs increase faster than inflation. It has more than doubled in that time interval. Family's cannot afford to pay cash for necessary care.

Describe the percentage of Americans with unpaid medical bills and the relationship between these bills and personal bankruptcies in the US.

42.9 million Americans have unpaid medical bills. Nearly two out of three bankruptcies stem from medical bills. There is high correlation between the two.

Explain the trend between 2008 and 2012 in how Americans were obtaining or forgoing health insurance. Describe the possible role of the Great Recession in those trends.

Overtime, employers have scaled back the number of jobs that include a medical care plan. 16.9% of jobs are uninsured. 44.5% are employer based.

Compare and contrast the 2008-2012 picture with the 2001-2017 trends in types of health insurance and who pays for it.

It seem over time Medicare has increased, which means government is starting to pay more for insurance and private less.

Describe how types of jobs, and types of healthcare plans affect the availability of affordable, high-quality healthcare for Americans.

Part-time and contractor positions typically don't include medical benefits. Business get to choose how much or how little they will contribute to insurance bills. By choosing poor quality plans they also lower their own costs.

Describe the inherent problems associated with delaying or avoiding necessary healthcare, as well as those connected to seeking indigent care in hospital emergency rooms.

Many Americans are uninsured, so they delay it or go to a nearby Emergency room and do not pay the bill. Others must eventually pay the bills. It's a humanitarian, societal, and economic crisis for this to happen.

Explain who the ACA is designed to help, how it does so, and why it is not free for the participants.

Affordable Care Act: People with with income at or above 133% of the FPL can obtain health insurance for reduced premiums. The federal government subsidizes the actual premium amount, but people still have to pay.

Explain who Medicaid is designed to help, how it does so, and how the federal-state partnership works.

For those too young/old/sick to work or with income below the FPL, there is the federal Medicaid program. It pays for all necessary medical care (not Medicare for seniors), joint fed-state program, all states have different restrictions.

Map out the Texas Medicaid caseload and costs based on the 3 major group of recipients. Describe patterns that are present.

Non-disabled children consume 66% of the caseload, long-term care consumes 25%, and pregnant women consume 9%. Long-term care costs the most, pregnant women the least, and non-disabled children in the middle.

Describe how individuals, based on their income, obtained healthcare before and after ACA.

Below the FPL, there was Medicaid. Above the FPL, everything was self-pay or employer-provided.

Describe the players that helped craft the ACA and their motivations.

"Obamacare". Passed by Congress, signed by the President. Hard-fought battle between hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, etc. All ensuring they could be 'winners'.

List the changes to healthcare insurance that ACA caused, even though many Americans don't realize the ACA was the reason.

- Created minimum standards for what bills would be covered by a policy

- Made it illegal for insurers to deny insurance coverage to anyone due to their health conditions

- Allowed adult children to remain on their parents' policy for much longer period of time

Explain the state mandate in the ACA, the Supreme Court decision regarding it, and the situation that was created.

ACA originally required all states to expand Medicaid coverage to more residents. It also required each state to establish insurance exchange so residents could obtain private insurance payed for by the federal government. The Supreme Court upheld ACA law in general but struck down the state mandate. Federal Government cannot force additional Medicaid coverage on states.

Characterize the various positions of the states on the ACA-sanctioned expansion of Medicaid. Do the same for the variations in percentages of uninsured residents in each state and note any patters with each state's position on expansion.

Most states do not participate in Medicaid (including Texas and most of the south). Majority of states participate, but many are either on the fence or have an alternative. There is correlation between states who don't participate in Medicaid and states who have more uninsured residents.

Describe the nature of the shift in state's positions on expansion between 2013 and 2018.

After 2018 election, more people have adopted Medicaid with few states still reluctant to join.

Describe the positions of the Texas populace and the Texas Legislature regarding Medicaid expansion here.

It is said that 64% of Texans want to accept federal Medicaid expansion. But the Legislature has not done so for six years.

Explain the profile that Texas uses to determine who is eligible for Medicaid in the state, as well as how it would change if Texas decided to expand Medicaid access under the ACA. Discuss how this highlights the conservative values that Texas references for not expanding.

Since the expansion of Medicaid didn't happen children (6-18), SSI (aged and disabled), Parent (w/ TANF), and Childless Adults lose Medicaid above the FPL.

Discuss the gap in provision of healthcare in states like Texas that have not expanded Medicaid. Characterize which states and regions have residents that fall into this gap.

The gap is between the FPL and the 133% of the FPL which is where the ACA starts helping. 4 million Americans are in the coverage gap, and 89% of those are in the South. 26% in Texas.

Describe the various reasons that Texas politicians have given for not expanding Medicaid in the state. Explain possible counterpoints for each.

- No federal intervention (one-third of state budgets comes from feds)

- Couldn't afford costs (most costs would be payed by feds)

- Didn't trust federal government to pay bills and help (but feds already pay for roads, school lunches, etc.)

Describe the healthcare situation for Texans in 2014 and compare it to other states.

24% of Texans were uninsured. 23% of low-income Texans had obtained insurance under the ACA. Texas still led the nation in uninsured residents.

Define the individual mandate within the ACA and explain why it was necessary given the private-insurance-based approach used in the law.

Why do people have to pay a penalty if they don't have insurance? ACA was an insurance-based policy, insurance only works when the insured pool includes lots of healthy people.

Explain how the loss of insurers from the ACA marketplace was a normal occurrence within insurance markets.

Insurance companies competed with each other to sell subsidized policies via ACA, some companies priced their policies too low and couldn't profit enough. ACA policy buyers were sicker than the government anticipated.

Explain the challenges in analyzing data in the area of education or other social policies.

Data we want is often not available at state and local levels, and sometimes it shows mixed results. Government must assess the two measurements (how much/fairly do states fund, and how many graduates/dropouts result).

Define educational attainment as it is used in this lecture.

Educational attainment refers to the highest level of education received by a person.

Characterize the correlations of economic, health, and crime measures with high school and college graduation rates in 2014.

Economic: Strong correlation between higher income and more degree.

Health: Strong correlations between more education and better health.

Crime: Good correlation between more education and less crime.

Characterize the correlations of high school and college graduation rates with poverty rates from 1970-2014.

There is a much stronger correlation between high school degree and poverty rates, whereas college degree has less correlation to less poverty.

Discuss the similarities and differences between #4 and the correlations over the same period between infant mortality rate and high school and college graduation rates.

The correlations between high school degree and infant mortality rate are similar and fairly weak compared to that of college degree and infant mortality rate.

Explain why the correlations between contemporary public education spending and graduation rates are much weaker than those between lagged public spending and graduation rates.

Because the money injected earlier impacts education at upper levels, which means that money. spent earlier impacts a student as they go higher in education.

Discuss the per-student public education spending in Texas, compare it to other states' spending, and explain the significance of the difference. Also, briefly describe the connection between Texas education spending and its culture and politics.

Texas: $8,998

Average: $11,674

Texas ranks 46th in the US. This is good for Texas' conservative political background because they desire less spending.

Describe the inequity issue in Texas involving per-student funding in public schools, how policy has been adjusted in the past, and the outcome. Discuss how Texas falls behind in public education funding even in many of the years where it increases its education budget.

It is difficult to change this in a low-spending, low-taxation state like Texas. Texas ranks 8th lowest in 2014 spending on public schools.

Describe the rationales and actions of the Texas state government regarding the public education budget in response to the Great Recession. Put that in context with respect to per-student funding in Texas from 2007-2016.

Districts continuously sue Texas for inequality of spending across poor and rich districts. Texas does not provide enough funding to poor districts to make their education work equally, they have to use the 'Robin Hood' method. Many fixes have been proposed, approved, defeated, and overturned. Great Recession took $5 billion from Texas' education budget of $35 billion.

Discuss the differences between the FY16 revenue source weights in school funding in Texas and in the average US state. Also describe the difference between the per-student spending in Texas versus the average US state from 2007-2016.

Funding Weight:

Federal - 10.2%

State - 37.9%

Local - 51.9%

Local districts pay most of the expenses for education. Texas average is far below the U.S. average spending.

Explain the issue at the heart of the 2013 suit by Texas school districts against the state, as well as the intermediate and final outcomes of that court action.

The Texas education funding satisfies minimal constitutional requirements, but there is so much room for improvement. 400 low and medium wealth districts sued Texas.

Describe the results of education funding reform efforts in the 2017 legislative session and how what funding resulted.

Rep Aycock's bill did not pass. Different bill passed to increase public education funding, but it did not cover inflation or population increases. More of the burden shifted to local school districts again and the inequities remained the same.

Discuss the impact of less funding for schools in poor districts in Texas.

Less funding means less equal education for students. Bigger classrooms, lower payed teachers, less field trips, etc.

Explain the extent of inequities of per-student funding in Texas between districts and the role that the state and local governments play in any shortfalls that result in a given district.

In poorer districts, the state has to pay more of the bill because the district cannot afford to pay enough of the bill, but there is still a huge gap between spending in poor districts and rich districts.

Character the fairness ratios calculated for each of the US states and the picture they form. Compare Texas to its border-sharing neighbors.

Most of Texas' neighbors fund their districts more equally than Texas. Most states do not struggle funding their poorest districts more than their richest districts.

Compare and contrast the amount of Ohio per-students revenue in each of the poverty-rate quintiles to those of Texas. What are the potential pros/cons of each?

Ohio funds its poorest districts way more than any other districts. The districts in the middle receive the least amount of funding.

Describe the outcome of education funding in the 2020-2021 biennial budget in Texas.

The budget increased state contribution by about $10 billion, but it also directed school districts to cut property tax rates, reducing local contributions.

Characterize the Texas High school graduation rates from 2007-2016.

Overtime, Texas High school graduation rates have increased from 78% to 89.1%. In 2010, Texas started ranking in the top 5 for graduation rates.

Discuss possible reasons that recent graduation rates may be inflated or inaccurate and why this is suspected.

Texas changed the way they counted High school graduation rate. Their way uses codes that can count a student out if they did something like moving out of town. They don't measure total graduating students against total 9th graders, but take most students out using these codes.

Describe the problem posed by the number of high schools in Texas reporting a 100% graduation rate in 2017.

Texas had between 250 and 300 schools reporting 100% graduation rate: far higher than any other state.

Explain what happened at Ballou High School in 2017, whether it is an isolated event, and what this means about measuring education attainment.

Ballou High school was pressured into reporting 100% graduation rate even though they had huge absentee issues. This means Texas just wants to show numbers but is not willing to actually educate students well.

Discuss the questions about excellence and equity that should be raised in Texas based on how it funds its public schools and how it measures education attainment.

Texas should stop trying to lie about how high their graduation rates are, because higher quality of education in poorer districts could have incredible effects on our economy.