TX GOV CH 12 Public Policy

Public education

50% of hispanic students in this, 30% white, 12.7% african american, 3.6% asian or pacific islander. 16.9% were considered limited english proficiency. 59% were considered poor. 47.2% were considered at risk. lower performance in tests. High drop out rates. Texas spends below national average on students. Teachers have low salaries

National Commission on Excellence in Education

A 1983 report by the "", called A Nation at Risk, identified a number of crises that were beginning to grip the nation's educational system. Test scores were declining and functional illiteracy was on the rise. Students were simply not equipped with the intellectual skills required in the modern world. If steps were not taken soon to reform education in the United States, the report argued, the nation was at risk of falling behind other countries in the rapidly changing world of international competition.

poverty

"" remains one of the most intractable problems facing the state. is the condition under which individuals or families do not have the resources to meet their basic needs, including food, shelter, health care transportation, and clothing.

c) Texas can apply for a waiver with the federal government, enabling it to create programs directed toward particular clients.

10. Which of the following statements is true about Medicaid in Texas? a) Medicaid is a program that was part of the New Deal. b) Texas policy makers make all the major decisions regarding the principles and standards directing Medicaid in Texas. There is no federal oversight. c) Texas can apply for a waiver with the federal government, enabling it to create programs directed toward particular clients. d) Medicaid employs doctors and nurses as members of the Department of Health and Human Services hired to provide medical care to the poor. e) Medicaid is funded entirely by the state.

b) provide medical care to an increasing number of Medicaid clients in Texas.

11. Managed care programs a) are not found in the Texas Medicaid program. b) provide medical care to an increasing number of Medicaid clients in Texas. c) provide medical care to a small number of Medicaid clients in Texas. d) provide direct fee-for-service care for Medicaid recipients. e) have declined in popularity since the 1990s

60, irrigation

Approximately 59 percent of the water used in Texas comes from aquifers (underground pools of water), the vast majority of which ("" percent) is used in "", the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops, particularly in the arid Panhandle region

Family Support Act

At the national level, the deadlock over welfare reform was broken with the passage of the "" in 1988. In the attempt to stem the rising tide of illegitimacy rates and single-parent families among the poor, the act mandated two-parent coverage for all state AFDC programs. It also established a number of new "workfare" programs whose goals were to get people off welfare and into the workforce. New standards were also developed requiring parents to participate in these workfare programs or lose their benefits.

Family suport act

By the mid 1980's a new critique of welfare programs had begun to emerge. observers believed that the skyrocketing amount of poor children and unwed mothers was result of a perverse set of incentives created by welfare programs, the passsage of the F"" in 1988 helps this.

50

For the next "" years, educational policy in the state would work through the institutional framework established by the Gilmer-Aikin Laws.

1949

Gilmer-Aikin Laws education reform legislation passed in "" that supplemented local funding of education with public monies, raised teachers' salaries, mandated a minimum length for the school year, and provided for more state supervision of public education

2008

Great Recession that began in what year?

Plessy v. Ferguson

In "" (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of state- imposed racial segregation through the now-infamous "separate but equal" doctrine. In Texas, as elsewhere across the South, segregated schools may have been separate, but they were far from equal. In the 1920s and '30s, for example, the length of the school term for black schools was only about four days shorter than that for white schools, but Texas spent an average of $3.39 less per student (about one-third less) on the education of African American students than

March 2010

In ", ", Congress passed two bills, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Reconciliation Act of 2010, which together became known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often referred to as Obamacare.

Gilmer-Aikin Laws

In 1949 the state legislature tried to address some of these problems by passing the "" , under which school districts were consolidated into 2,900 administrative units, state equalization funding was provided to supplement local taxes, teachers' salaries were raised, and a minimum 175 teaching days school year was established. In addition, the laws established the Texas Education Agency (TEA), originally known as the State Department of Education, to supervise public education in the state.

1

In 1981 the constitutional ceiling on welfare spending was replaced with a more flexible standard. Instead of having a flat cap of $80 million, welfare expenditures could not exceed "" percent of the total state budget.

17

In 2014, __.4 percent of Texans (4,270,218 people) lived below the poverty line. In addition, in October 2013 a total of 3,651,344 people were en-rolled in Medicaid, the federally financed, state-operated program providing medical services to low-income people. Poverty remains one of the most intractable problems facing the state. In 2014 the federal poverty guideline was $11,670 a year for one person and $4,060 a year for each additional person in the family. Over 26 percent of Latinos and 23.8 percent of African Americans in Texas are poor. Of those over age 65 in Texas, 11.4 per cent are poor compared with 9.4 percent in the nation as a whole. Poverty among children under age 18 is much higher in Texas (24.8 percent) than in the United States as a whole (20.8 percent). Texas uses these federal poverty guidelines to determine eligibility for a variety of social programs. For example, a family of three is eligible for reduced-price school meals if the family is at no more than 185 percent of the poverty level. A family of three is eligible for free school meals if the family is at no more than 130 per cent of the poverty level, and is eligible for food stamps (the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP) if the family is at no more than 130 per-cent of the poverty level.

4, 3.39

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of state- imposed racial segregation through the now-infamous "separate but equal" doctrine. In Texas, as elsewhere across the South, segregated schools may have been separate, but they were far from equal. In the 1920s and '30s, for example, the length of the school term for black schools was only about "" days shorter than that for white schools, but Texas spent an average of $"" less per student (about one-third less) on the education of African American students than

24, 2012

On February "", "", the Texas Supreme Court ruled on the case The Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel

rising cost

One major welfare program that has become increasingly costly is Medicaid, a state-federal program that finances health care for the poor. Reforms instituted under the Obama administration have significantly expanded health care coverage for the poor. Texas, however, is not participating in that expansion. The "" of Medicaid is seen by many conservatives to be a growing threat to the financial integrity of the state's budget.

15, 4

Since 1949 the State Board of Education has undergone occasional restructuring. Membership was expanded to 24 in 1973 and to 27 in 1981. Following a special legislative session, the board became a 15-member appointed body in 1984. But in 1988 it reverted to an elected body composed of "" members serving ""-year terms.

State Board of Education

The "" became the policy-making body for public education in the state, selecting budgets, establishing regulations for school accreditation, executing contracts for the purchase of textbooks, and investing in the Permanent School Fund. The board also had the power to appoint a commissioner of education, subject to confirmation by the Texas Senate. How much money is available to public education through the PSF is determined by this

Medicaid Women's Health Program

The "" in Texas serves more than 100,000 women and is funded by $35 million from federal funds and $7 million from state funds. Through subsidized clinics located across the state, the program helps pay for birth control, health screening, and family exams for a select group of women on Medicaid. Planned Parenthood offers these services as well as abortion services at its various clinics across the state. Conservatives in Texas, including Governor Perry, were unhappy with any state monies being used to subsidize groups sup-porting abortion and moved to cut program funds from going to these clinics. But federal regulations clearly state that patients in the program, not state officials, decide where money from the program is spent.

b) were major educational reforms passed in 1949.

The Gilmer-Aikin Laws a) regulate schools in the Gilmer-Aikin ISD. b) were major educational reforms passed in 1949. c) established an office of elected state superintendent of public instruction. d) allowed for homeschooling of children. e) required that money raised from the poll tax be spent on public education.

budget crisis

The Great Recession of 2008-09 brought a "" to the 2011 legislative session that shook educational policy in Texas to its core. One of the principal ways that the 2011 legislature balanced the budget without raising taxes was by making severe cuts to the tune of $5.6 billion in elementary and secondary education funding.

de facto segregation

The desegregation of public schools was hampered further by political opposi-tion at both the local and state levels. In 1957 the Texas legislature passed laws encouraging school districts to resist federally ordered desegregation, although then-governor Price Daniel, Sr., chose to ignore such laws. 14 By the late 1960s legally segregated schools were largely a thing of the past. Nevertheless, " " remained a problem, particularly in urban areas with large minority populations. As in many other urban areas across the country, a large number of middle- and upper-income whites in Texas abandoned urban public school systems for suburban public schools or private schools.

41.31

The federal portion of the program is determined every year by comparing average state per capita income to the average national per capita income. Each state thus has its own FMAP (the federal medical assistance percentage). Poorer states receive more federal assistance for the program than richer states. In 2014 the FMAP for Texas was 58.69 percent, which means that "" percent of all Medicaid expenditures were state funded.

public education

Throughout much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,"" remained largely a local affair. Schools were funded by local taxes, and decisions such as what to teach and how long the school year would be were made at the local level. Many of the school systems were chronically short of funds, facing such problems as a shortage of supplies and textbooks, inadequate facilities, and poorly trained teachers.

Medicaid , 1965

a federal and state program financing medical services to low-income people In "", Congress established this , a state-federal program to finance health care for the poor. President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" also expanded the number of social service programs available to the poor. Increasingly, it was argued, the solution to alleviating poverty was through expanded federal control over welfare programs.

Texas Water Development Board (TWBD)

is in control of flood protection and control projects.

de facto segregation

occurs when widespread individual preferences, sometimes backed up with private pressure, lead to separation. As in many other urban areas across the country, a large number of middle- and upper-income whites in Texas abandoned urban public school systems for suburban public schools or private schools.

Public policy

refers to the outputs of government institutions. can be defined as the expressed goals of a governmental body backed by incentives or sanctions. can be found in laws passed by legislature as well as in the rules, regulations, and orders from properly authorized public agencies. Incentives or sanctions can include, monetary penalties, subsidies, severe crime penalties to punish people. There are many steps to this and is rather messy process. 1. problem identification 2. policy formulation 3. implementation 4. evaluation.

Affordable Care Act

the legislation requires individuals not covered by existing plans to pursue health insurance or pay a penalty. Along with this "individual mandate," as the mandatory coverage came to be called, the act also increased coverage for preexisting conditions and expanded medical insurance to an estimated 30 million people. Individuals will have to buy a health insurance package or pay a penalty on their federal income tax. Federal exchanges will be offering health insurance, but not with the assistance of Texas. The failure to opt into the expanded federal programs under ACA will mean a sizable portion of the poor population will continue to not have health insurance coverage, including undocumented persons whose health care was not addressed under the ACA. One thing is clear: few individuals are will-ing to argue that Texas has solved the problem of providing health care to the poor. In a report released by the federal Agency for Health Research and Quality in July 2012, Texas ranked dead last in health care services and delivery.

Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Burrel Day and Joel McDaniel

which has important implications for future attempts to regulate water usage in Texas, particularly in those areas that rely heavily upon aquifers. The case involved two farmers who had applied to the Edwards Aquifer Authority for permission to pump 700 acre-feet per year of water to irrigate their 350-acre ranch in Van Ormy, a small town south of San Antonio. The farmers argued that they had rights to water from the aquifer based on their owner-ship of land above it. Maintaining that the farmers were unable to prove "historical use" of water from the aquifer, the authority granted them a permit for pumping only 14 acre-feet. Writing for the 9-0 court majority, Justice Hecht ruled that using "historical use" as a criterion for granting a permit to pump water was a departure from the Texas Water Code.