I wrote this as a reflection for a class I'm taking at the University of Rochester. As far as rants go its pretty benign. I mention a couple of articles which I will try to also post. I hope you get jazzed* up by this as much as I am.
*jazzed=excited/angry/impassioned
Schneider starts by categorizing how and why policy is designed by doing a survey of different theorists. He says that the context of the policy should be a large determinate for its design and implementation. One thing I focused on in Schneider’s article was a component of context Schneider referred to as “citizenship”. When I think citizenship I think of being part of a community, looking over your shoulder for the person next to you. I feel that we have a strong lack of citizenship when it comes to education policy. As Kumashiro might say, we are afraid to be upstanding citizens for this cause because it might threaten people’s own lifestyle. Where are the advocates for education? Who besides some researchers and writers, such as Jonathon Kozol( pictured), are making noise about the inequities that pervade almost every single large urban community? Of the many “tools” in policy design that Schneider discussed, the Hortatory tool seems to be only reserved for policies that would be considered by Wilson as clientist or entrepreneurial, or in other words, policies that have dollar signs attached. Sure there is money to be made in education, just look at the McGraw-Hill cronies of President Bush, but there are far less politicians making public pleas for equitable education funding than there are for a dozen other issues.
It seems that the policy that I can’t escape discussing, No Child Left Behind, only makes use of one of the tools that Schneider discuses in his article, the use of inducements and sanctions. He mentions two other tools to drive policy that to perfectly align to a bit of education policy. It seems to make plain sense that upon implementation there has to be more than one way to unsure a policy does what it is supposed to do. It seems capacity building makes sense because it would empower a municipality or school to make changes for its own well being. The same can be said for the hortatory tools that would engender some outrage in people that might not know about the problems that many under served schools face. I shudder to think this, but are these tools not utilized because it would be too difficult? The fact that our government isn’t doing everything possible, utilizing every tool possible, hints to me that they might want this inequity to remain. Kumashiro would probably agree with this statement. He mentions how Billings thinks of the “Achievement Gap” as a debt rather than a gap. This says to me that our politicians in power have been borrowing against poor black people’s ability to tolerate an unacceptable quality of education.
Questions:
1. Does education policy get more scrutinized than other types of public policy? If so, is it more scrutinized for particular reasons?
2. This week’s unanswerable question: Is there a definitive way to make every person care about the welfare of all children? How long before we see advertisements that prey on people’s guilt by asking for donations for an inner-city school or neighborhood? Advertisements that ask for just “a dollar a day” and look just like the ones with Sally Struthers and the starving children of third world countries!
Kumashiro's Article (shorter)
*jazzed=excited/angry/impassioned
Schneider starts by categorizing how and why policy is designed by doing a survey of different theorists. He says that the context of the policy should be a large determinate for its design and implementation. One thing I focused on in Schneider’s article was a component of context Schneider referred to as “citizenship”. When I think citizenship I think of being part of a community, looking over your shoulder for the person next to you. I feel that we have a strong lack of citizenship when it comes to education policy. As Kumashiro might say, we are afraid to be upstanding citizens for this cause because it might threaten people’s own lifestyle. Where are the advocates for education? Who besides some researchers and writers, such as Jonathon Kozol( pictured), are making noise about the inequities that pervade almost every single large urban community? Of the many “tools” in policy design that Schneider discussed, the Hortatory tool seems to be only reserved for policies that would be considered by Wilson as clientist or entrepreneurial, or in other words, policies that have dollar signs attached. Sure there is money to be made in education, just look at the McGraw-Hill cronies of President Bush, but there are far less politicians making public pleas for equitable education funding than there are for a dozen other issues.
It seems that the policy that I can’t escape discussing, No Child Left Behind, only makes use of one of the tools that Schneider discuses in his article, the use of inducements and sanctions. He mentions two other tools to drive policy that to perfectly align to a bit of education policy. It seems to make plain sense that upon implementation there has to be more than one way to unsure a policy does what it is supposed to do. It seems capacity building makes sense because it would empower a municipality or school to make changes for its own well being. The same can be said for the hortatory tools that would engender some outrage in people that might not know about the problems that many under served schools face. I shudder to think this, but are these tools not utilized because it would be too difficult? The fact that our government isn’t doing everything possible, utilizing every tool possible, hints to me that they might want this inequity to remain. Kumashiro would probably agree with this statement. He mentions how Billings thinks of the “Achievement Gap” as a debt rather than a gap. This says to me that our politicians in power have been borrowing against poor black people’s ability to tolerate an unacceptable quality of education.
Questions:
1. Does education policy get more scrutinized than other types of public policy? If so, is it more scrutinized for particular reasons?
2. This week’s unanswerable question: Is there a definitive way to make every person care about the welfare of all children? How long before we see advertisements that prey on people’s guilt by asking for donations for an inner-city school or neighborhood? Advertisements that ask for just “a dollar a day” and look just like the ones with Sally Struthers and the starving children of third world countries!
Kumashiro's Article (shorter)
http://rapidshare.com/files/195796783/03-Kumashiro.pdf.html
Schneider's (long!!)
http://rapidshare.com/files/195797334/02_20-_20Schneider.pdf.html
Go Bills,
Colin
