Read chapter 12: "Public Policy" in your "Governing Texas" book.

Familiarize yourself with the following concepts and answer the questions below.

The Policy-Making Process

The four stages of the policy-making process:

• Problem identification
• Policy formulation
• Implementation
• Evaluation
• Rationality in Policy Making
  • A goal of policy makers is to make public policy more rational and more efficient. Rationality, in this regard, generally refers to the idea that we have clearly identified the goals that we wish to achieve and have formulated and implemented policies that address these problems in an optimal or efficient manner.
  • There are a variety of factors that can work against rationality in public policy; it might be better to call it "bounded rationality."

Education Policy

For the 2016–17 biennium, an estimated $41.3 billion in state General Revenue Funds went to public education.

• The Roots of Education Policy in Texas
  • Public education was one of the foundational policies of Texas, stretching back to independence from Mexico and the Constitution of 1876.
• Desegregation
  • Enshrined by the Texas Constitution of 1876, ratified by Plessy v. Ferguson, and overturned in Brown v. Board of Education, few problems have troubled educational policy over the years as has segregation.
• Equity in the Public School System
  • San Antonio v. Rodriguez ruled that Texas was not required to subsidize poorer school districts under the equal protection clause.
  • Edgewood ISD v. Kirby declared that the funding system for Texas schools led to "glaring disparities" between rich and poor schools that eventually led to the current, much criticized "Robin Hood" plan to transfer funds from richer to poorer school districts.
• Educational Excellence and Accountability in Texas
  • A drive for great accountability through testing developed in the 1980s and continued into the twenty-first century, but these approaches are now being reconsidered.
• Education Policy in a New Era
  New policies and ideas put forth on education in Texas include:
  • Vouchers and charter schools to increase competition and therefore raise standards
  • Increased funding, especially teacher pay

Welfare Policy

• Poverty in Texas
  • Between 1990 and 1999, the percentage of Texans living in poverty fell from 15.9 percent to 15.0 percent, but it rose again during the Great Recession. In 2014, 17.2 percent of Texans lived below the poverty line.
• Welfare in Texas, 1935–96
  • Most welfare funds in Texas from the New Deal on came from federal programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, and Supplemental Security Income.
• The Idea of Dependency and Welfare Reform in the 1990s
  • Critics of welfare sought to end what they saw as "dependency" on welfare and its social consequences. Temporary Aid for Needy Families replaced AFDC in 1996.
• Evaluating Welfare Reforms
  • Welfare reform has been a mixed success. Fewer people are on welfare rolls, but the transition from poverty to work has been uneven, especially in light of the 2008 recession.

Medicaid and Health Care Policy

• Medicaid
  • Other than health insurance programs established for state employees, Texas's principal policy initiative regarding health care and health insurance is Medicaid.
• Broader Health Care Issues in Texas
  • As in other state-federal programs, federal money for Medicaid is accompanied by federal rules and regulations with which the state must comply in order to maintain this funding. This sometimes breeds tremendous political controversy between the state and the federal government.
• The Affordable Care Act
  • The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, mandated that all Americans have health insurance and incentivized states to expand their Medicaid rolls to help provide insurance for poorer Americans.
  • Challenges in the Supreme Court weakened some parts of the law by giving states the option to not expand Medicaid. Texas was one of these states.

Water Policy

Water policy in Texas is complicated by the varied climate and geography of Texas, as well as surging demand.

• Water Law in Texas
  • Underlying water policy in Texas is a complicated system of private property rights derived from three sources: Spanish law, traditional English common law, and statutory law. Texas law recognizes several legal classes of water rights for surface water and groundwater that are governed by different rules. Historically, these variations in the law have made the forging of water policy an arduous and at times politically charged matter.
• Planning Authorities and Water Policy
  • From the early twentieth century on, Texas has put various agencies and initiatives to the task of addressing water policy.

1. Is health care a right that government should provide for its citizens, or is it a private necessity that individuals should provide for themselves?
   
2. How should public education be financed? Is a property tax the best way to do it? What are the alternatives? Are they any better? Should per-student spending be equalized across the state?
3. What sort of income support should Texas provide for needy residents? What are the consequences of reducing benefits (either the amount of benefits or the length of time they may be received)? If you were presented with evidence that the social costs of welfare were actually lower than the costs associated with increased crime and urban blight, would you support increased welfare benefits?