Notes on Videolecture 11 Applications of the GCT model

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This lecture contains three examples where prof. McFarland applied the GCT model1. Example 1: San Francisco Unified School District's attempt to desegregate

Review of the case Written by Stephen Weiner

1960's • Citizen committee developed a desegregation plan for only two schools • They were sued to expand to all the school

1971: US Supreme Court appointed San Francisco to do something about desegregation ASAP

Ambiguity

What desegregation means? • What is the metric? • How to accomplish it? • What are the technologies?

Who are the participants?

Garbage Can Model Elements Choice arenas (garbage cans): MEETINGS Problems

Problems that were considered • Key: Desegregating elementary schools • Keeping integrity of school complexes • Bilingual education needed • Bussing disliked by whites (white flight) • SES (socio economic) integration wanted • Desegregating secondary schools

Other problems (not taken up in garbage can) • Teachers/students boycott schools in disrepair (budget woes) • Lawsuit filed by Latin-American Organization (bilingual) • Financial problems are apparent with contract disputes • Teacher's strike

Participants

Community interest groups Federal consultants (outsiders with little understanding of constituent or local concerns) CAC (Citizens advisory council) access to meetings in such that only white middle class

women (stay at home moms) attend

                                                            1 McFarland, D. (2012) Video Lecrure 11 “Applications of the GCT model”. in https://class.coursera.org/organalysis‐2012‐001/lecture/index. Date of last visit 10/19/2012 

Notes on Videolecture 11 Applications of the GCT model

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Solutions (there are too many, about 24) - narrowed to two Tristar (3 xone plan written by technocrats) Horseshoe (7 zone plan - less drastic) this wins due to intersection of flows in choice

arena! NOT CONSIDERED: Simple cross-town busing

Conclusion

Valuable to put everything in a diagram

The teacher says that have we had different participants, problems and solutions, the

outcomes would have been different (I think that this is kind of obvious: if the world were different, we would have different outcomes!)

Notes on Videolecture 11 Applications of the GCT model

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Example 2: Agenda setting in the legislative process Focus on Health and transportation issues in the Jimmy Carter years (1976-1980)

Why do certain issues become part of the government agenda while other issues not? Because we interpret agenda settings as a process of organized anarchy

Politic agendas are not reactive to a particular event. They are proactive Proposals are written, and they are waiting for problems to match them with

Garbage Can Model Elements Participants

Within Government • Congressional houses and staff (Control over alternatives) • President (Agenda setter) • Cabinet, staff, and political appointees • Civil servants (longevity)

Outside Government • Interest groups • Lobbyists • Professional societies • Advocacy organizations • academics/researchers • media • voters • general public/constituents

Process (How do we describe the process of policy formation?) Non-garbage can approaches

• Origins Where the idea came from? How did the idea spread?

• Rational choice Studied early in this course Rational choice considers the risks, rewards, consequences and selects the best

alternative • Incrementalism

Starting from scratch, grow the process like a tree Garbage can approach: the one that Kindon likes

• Provides a more complete understanding of agenda setting because it considers factors that the other models don't Ill defined goals, problematic preferences/inconsistent identities Unclear technologies/tasks Fluid participation Independent streams of problems, solutions, participants, and choice opportunities

• The streams are independent Policies can be developed independently of problems, and the participants are

flowing also, and only when they converge... The convergence of streams in a policy window determines when a solution's time

has come

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Example 3: Title V of no Child Left Behind Review of the case

NCLB is the name of the 2001 reauthorization of the 1965 elementary and secondary education act

It has been re authorized several times Provides federal grant support for innovative programs and public charter schools

Garbage Can Model Elements

Problems (Indicators and public perceptions) What problems could Title V solve?

• Failing schools • Lack of innovation • Lack of competition (no pressure to improve) • Unequal opportunity for lower income children • Charter school funding- they say that they receive a disproportionate amount of

per pupil funding from the state What are the indicators of the problems

• International comparisons • Achievement gap literature • Government evaluations and other studies

What is the public perception of the problem • Local schools vs. schools in general. The public think they are failing • Market forces make sense to people • Bush: "Soft bigotry of low expectations"

Policies (What are the policy alternatives that speak to the problems identified above?)

School vouchers Promote charter schools Public school development

• Improve instructions • Structure schools better • Accountability: Rewards and punishments

Throw money at the problem Ignore and play the blame game

Participants (How receptive was the political environment?)

Clinton was unable to finish the work of re-authorize it in 1999 Bush finished the work as one of his first agenda items

Policy window - Deadline and the convergence of streams

Republican majority in congress Republican president Frustration with public education Promising start of the character school movement strategic use of language by proponents of NCLB "Success" of state accountability laws (CA,TX, Others)

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Dense Summary Diagram