Edu591 - Public Policy

Question #1: Examine the New Policy Environment and its implications for schools. What are the major issues that school policy-makers must deal with in today’s political and economic climate?

Today, business, media, and political leaders generally consider public education to be in crisis (Fowler, 2009). Many companies have employees not equipped with basic skills, so they place the blame on their education. Media outlets will interview the uninformed public and derive that their lack of understanding comes from a poor education. Politicians see various data points that show the decline of US testing scores, internationally compared, begin to fall and see a crisis in the education system. This paper will attempt to examine further this New Policy environment in great detail to determine its implications for today’s schools by examining the major issues that school policy-makers must deal with in today’s political and economic climate.

One of the major issues that must be addressed is that of school financing. Many school districts – and not just poor or urban ones – find themselves in ongoing financial emergencies (Fowler, 2009). In Florida, there was an amendment passed a few years ago that would require the average classroom size to be no greater than 25 students per class. While this is a noble effort for a better experience, this comes at a great financial burden to districts. To comply, schools need to hire more personnel and in some cases, secure additional property to house these new staff members. Many initiatives that are driven by the federal or state level come at great financial costs to school districts (Fowler, 2009). This is something that policy makers must always be aware of given the status of national, state, and local economies. In many instances, it is not economically feasible to increase taxes to fund these activities, but instead best to do more with less (Fowler, 2009).

Another major issue that politicians face is that of school...