Module 5 Ch 10 Education Policy

Background (1 of 2)

• Education fulfills many basic goals.

1. according to the beliefs of Thomas Jefferson, it provides an avenue to ensure the continuation of U.S. democracy

2. education helps to assimilate large numbers of immigrants.

3. primary mechanism for social mobility in the United States, as the educated are better able to secure jobs that raise their economic and social status.

• Education provided for moral/political

reasons. Morally, education was seen as a way to help individuals and groups in the population understand the nation’s ideals and to give them a chance to better themselves. Politically, education not only informed people about the U.S. system of government but also imparted the nation’s political culture.

• Public education, traditionally state/local

government. Traditionally, public education has been in the hands of state and local government. Policymakers at these levels have guarded this responsibility throughout the years and raised concerns whenever the federal government has attempted to interfere in education policy, especially in primary and secondary schools.

• Federal government interference

concerns. federal funding came a variety of contentious issues, including whether the federal government could dictate what was taught and whether parochial schools should receive funding.

Background (2 of 2)

• Federal government involvement relatively

recent. (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) ESEA signaled the beginning of increased federal interest in public education. many elected officials and candidates for office from both political parti’s regard education as a high-priority issue and want to enact programs designed to improve it.

• Greater interest in higher education. Because education is associated with positive externalities, policymakers want to encourage individuals to attend college and to help defray the cost of doing so; in the end, the better-educated population stimulates economic growth.

• Morrill Act. develop the nation’s land-grant college system, which in turn contributed significantly to economic development during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Land-grant colleges focused initially on practical fields such as agriculture and engineering, but they eventually broadened their scope to include the full range of arts and sciences.

• Federal government assists student

population. by making money available through direct payments, subsidized loans, and tax breaks. Programs such as the GI Bill and the Pell Grant provide money directly to eligible students to make attending college more affordable.

Problems Facing Education (1 of 4) 531

Funding

• Funding from local property taxes.

• State/local governments control school

curriculums. a significant portion of funding for public schools in the United States comes from local property taxes. In fact, it is this characteristic of education policy that has ensured that state and local governments maintain a large measure of control over school curriculums in their jurisdictions.

• Problems of this funding. property tax does not keep pace with the inflationary costs of providing an education; or, to use a tax policy term it is not buoyant.

• Direct bearing on education quality. while teacher salaries, textbooks, school supplies, and other costs continue to increase, the amount of money provided through property taxes remains unchanged. schools find themselves having to provide more services with fewer resources.

Problems Facing Education (2 of 4)

Quality

• Concern about quality of education.

• 2019 Trends in International Mathematics

and Science Study. eighth graders in the United States performed below those in eight other countries but above those in twenty-four.

• 1980s, SAT scores went down.

• Public problem definition affects appraisal. defining a quality education is not so easy, but as public policy students have learned, it is necessary. The way a public problem is defined affects the appraisal of it, the alternatives that are considered, and the policies that might be adopted to deal with it.

Problems Facing Education (3 of 4)

Quality

• Teacher quality. Some analysts assert that current teachers have less skill and knowledge than teachers in the past.

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB). There were a number of reports prior to the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) of a significant number of instructors teaching in fields in which they were not trained.

• Out-of-field teaching. Education Trust reported in 2010 that while there have been significant improvements in the area of out-of-subject teaching, the nation had not yet reached the nation’s goal of 100 percent of the instructors teaching in areas within their specialty

• Increased testing requirements for

students. In order for students to move on to the next grade or perhaps to graduate, they must meet the appropriate standards.

Problems Facing Education (4 of 4)

Quality

• Race to the Top initiative. Under the program, the federal government provided significant levels of funding (over $4 billion to eleven states) to states that pledged to adopt statewide learning standards and assessments; build data systems to measure achievement;

recruit, retain, and reward effective teachers and principals through measures such as merit pay and retention bonuses; foster education innovation through such means as laws encouraging charter school development; and focus on turning around the lowest-performing schools.

• Reauthorization of ESEA “blueprint.” The major points of the blueprint include ensuring that all students complete high school and are prepared for college and a career, providing for great teachers and leaders in every school, creating equity and opportunity for all students, raising the bar and rewarding excellence, and promoting innovation and continuous improvement.

• Common Core State Standards. one way to improve education and also provide a sense of consistency regarding standards in the states. These standards were developed through state leaders tied to the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2009. They set “grade-specific goals” for English and math.

• Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). 2015, President Obama signed a new version of the federal education law (ESEA) called Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reversed much of the federal government’s control of public education and returned control to the states and local districts

Education Policy Reform (1 of 5) pg. 541

Merit Pay

• Teacher salary increases and merit. To correct what they see as a flaw in the system, some reformers have promoted the idea of tying teacher salary increases to merit. Merit pay, according to supporters of this plan, should lead to better education as teachers improve themselves to be eligible for greater raises or promotions.

• Should lead to better education.

• Issues of merit pay. no objective or agreed-upon measurement has yet been formulated for what constitutes an effective or quality teacher. Using student performance as an indicator of quality disregards other factors that may affect how students perform in the classroom. tying merit pay to student performance may produce some possibly undesirable incentives in the education system as the pressure mounts on schools to ensure high scores or for teachers to receive bonuses.

Teacher Standards, Certification, and

Salaries (2 of 5)

• Meet standards to become certified. The American Federation of Teachers has promoted a proposal that would provide significant salary increases to those who become board certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). By having specific standards that teachers must meet and demonstrate, this process not only is objective but also offers a monetary incentive for teachers to pursue excellence in the classroom.

• Ensuring teacher quality,

substance/pedagogy knowledge. Requiring a uniform level of competency for teaching should ensure a better-quality education for the students. For example, the standards would end the practice of assigning teachers to courses in fields that are not among their specialties.

• Report by OECD. many countries are pursuing multiple avenues to ensure high-quality teacher education. The report provides a few best practices, which include clear and concise profiles of what teachers are expected to know, models that focus more on preparing professionals for school settings and less on academic preparation, and flexible structures that allow teachers to be more reflective and research based in addressing what is going on in the classroom.

• Support quality education, better system.

Education Policy Reform (3 of 5)

School Vouchers, School Choice, and

Charter Schools

• Public school as a monopoly. one way to look at the students in a particular school district is as a captive market whose single provider (a monopoly) supplies their public school education.

• Reform system, give parents options. Society needs to reform the system in a way that gives parents options about where to send their children to school. Among the suggested reforms are school choice, school vouchers, and charter schools.

• Competition, way to raise quality. when parents can exercise choice, the schools will compete for students by providing higher-quality education, and the competition will raise the level of quality for everyone.

Education Policy Reform (4 of 5)

School Vouchers, School Choice, and

Charter Schools

• School choice. School choice programs allow parents to send their children to any public school in a particular area. The competition is among public schools only, not between public and private schools, but these programs do foster competition.

• School vouchers. the government provides a certain dollar amount that parents can then apply to private or parochial school tuition or as part of the full cost of a public school education.

• Charter school. A state board of education gives an independent entity the responsibility of establishing a school and delivering education services with limited control by the school board. The state funds these schools, but the regulations that typically govern public schools are significantly reduced to allow the schools to have a particular focus.

Education Policy Reform (5 of 5)

School Testing

• NCLB shifted federal government role. The Obama administration was willing to provide more flexibility in the context of meeting the standards dictated by NCLB, but still demanded a certain level of assessment and accountability.

• Testing requirement, large/controversial

change. The ESSA had a number of areas that walked back the role of the federal government that NCLB championed. These included returning power to states and local districts to determine how to address failing schools

leaving it up to states and localities to set performance goals and school rating

eliminating the federal consequences for schools that perform poorly; and barring the federal government from imposing academic requirements.

While hailed by many on both sides of the political aisle, groups representing the poor and underrepresented populates claimed it went too far in eliminating federal oversight and worried about a return of inconsistent education standards that might particularly affect the poor

• Concerns about standardized testing.

• Large rewrite of NCLB, ESSA.

Higher Education Issues (1 of 2) pg. 550

Affirmative Action

• Promoting diversity, demographics

preferences. For years, many colleges and universities, in the name of promoting diversity in their student bodies, have given admissions preferences to certain demographic groups such as African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

• States eliminating preference programs. Those who favor the abolition of affirmative action programs, however, see nonaffirmative action admissions practices as more equitable to all the applicants.

• Ethical/fairness issues with affirmative

action.

• Proponents versus opponents arguments. Proponents of affirmative action might point out that in the past minorities were excluded from many institutions of higher learning. In addition, many minorities have faced discrimination and inadequate preparation to attend elite schools, and affirmative action programs help to level the playing field. Opponents argue that it is unfair to give preferences just because of racial characteristics.

Higher Education Issues (2 of 2)

Costs of Higher Education

• Increasing costs for college degrees. The costs of college education are substantial and continue to rise. For much of the past several decades, they have been rising faster than the rate of inflation.

• State support provided to students. one of the most important issues in higher education is the level of state support provided to students, especially those attending state institutions.

• Overregulation of colleges to blame.

Focused Discussion: Higher Education

Affordability, Cost, and Value (1 of 5) pg 557

• Cost to students, decreasing support. State support for higher education has gone down over the past twenty-five years as competition for funding has increased, particularly from the prison systems and state support for Medicaid and other social service programs.

• Scholarship money based on merit. As many colleges and universities have attempted to compete for students, there has also been a tendency to provide more scholarship money based on merit than on need.

• How nation finances college education.

• Higher education, private/public good. If it is a private good, meaning that most of the benefits of higher education are bestowed upon the individual and he or she receives a higher wage as a result, then pushing more cost to that individual may make sense. But if higher education is seen as a public good, since the additional education will make society as a whole better through better citizenship, more economic development, and less need for social services, then public support for education 558 is appropriate.

Focused Discussion: Higher Education

Affordability, Cost, and Value (2 of 5)

Economic Issues

• Public support, larger public benefits.

• Education as positive externality. education can be considered a positive externality in that society benefits from a more educated population.

• Universities preparing workforce during

recession.

• Higher education, more private good.

Focused Discussion: Higher Education

Affordability, Cost, and Value (3 of 5)

Political Issues

• More opposition to higher education. Should higher education be funded at a particular level instead of some other public policy option?

• Higher education institutions, lobbying. many higher education institutions, particularly those in the public sector, do their own lobbying to protect their public financing. (Ex: California uni bringing in 46.3 billion revenues for California.)

• Issue of priorities. more elaborate student-life facilities, high salaries for administrators, and exorbitant costs for college sports, and question if this is the best use of public tax dollars

Focused Discussion: Higher Education

Affordability, Cost, and Value (4 of 5)

Equity and Ethical Issues

• Education as great equalizer. Education provides a mechanism for success.

• Federal Pell Grants. These grants provide up to $5,815 (for 2016–2017) based on need, cost of attendance, and your student status. There is concern, though, that these grants do not provide the same purchasing power as they used to, and that more people are turning to loan programs to help meet their college costs and hence all the concerns about student debt

• Free or significantly reduced-price college. Some have argued for a system that provides for free or significantly reduced college. President Obama argued for free community college. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the two major Democratic candidates for the 2016 election, proposed free tuition at public institutions, particularly for certain income levels, or in Clinton’s words “having no-debt tuition.”

• Programs helping alleviate college costs. HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) Scholarship program in Georgia. Under the program, students must maintain a B average in high school and keep this average in college to qualify for state grants to pay for college.

Focused Discussion: Higher Education

Affordability, Cost, and Value (5 of 5)

Equity and Ethical Issues

• President Biden, student debt forgiveness.

• Critics of debt forgiveness.

• Issue of equity in financing.

• Private/public good, affordability versus

quality.