Chapter Nine

Making State and Local Policy

Chapter Outline

I. Education

A. Education as a public function

1. Plato, Aristotle, and Jefferson saw an educated citizenry as essential to good government

2. Free compulsory public education is now an established fact, but many had opposed it in the past as

leading to social unrest and giving government control over the young

3. State and local governments have primary responsibility for education; federal dollars have been

declining

a. One-third of all state and local expenditures are fore education

b. The state percentage varies greatly; state role is increasing recently as a way of equalizing access across local school districts

B. Administration

1. The local school district is the basic unit; 14,000 of them

2. The state has a superintendent or commissioner of education with supervisory and financial powers

3. Local authorities enforce policies

4. State money is distributed through formula; trend is to equalize educational expenditures

C. The role of the national government

1. Federal involvement began with Sputnik in 1957, rose to 9 percent of funding in 1980, and has

declined in the 1990s to 6 percent

2. The federal government makes grants to the states at the elementary, secondary, and higher-education

levels, but the funding comes with many regulations

A. Educational issues

1. Most support the trend to separate schools from politics, especially partisanship, but there are many

controversial issues

2. Public school integration was a major concern in 1970s and 1980s; now school busing battles are

over but inner city schools are racially segregated

3. Goals 2000: Educate America Act

a. States are encouraged to set standards, helped by federal aid

b. Some are opposed to federal goals and standards, but most states have participated as the act provided for state and local control

c. Education has now become part of presidential election politics

4. Vouchers

a. Vouchers inject competition into the system by permitting parents the freedom to choose where to send their child to school; they would presumably spend their vouchers on the best school, so schools competing for vouchers would have a powerful incentive to improve their product

b. The political movement pushing vouchers has lost some of its impact because of ballot-initiative defeats, the opposition of the NEA, and the AFT, the failure of the idea to do well in state legislatures, and court rulings that have said poor families do not have the right to demand vouchers from government to allow their children to attend better schools

5. Charter schools

a. Some states grant charters to individuals or groups to start schools and receive public funds if they can meet prescribed standards specified by law; charter schools deal directly with the local school boards

b. Charter schools are intended to interject the competition of the marketplace into elementary and secondary education; opponents contend that the schools are little more than vouchers in charter-school uniforms

6. National student testing

a. National tests and national norms would be administered to students periodically to assess how individual students, classrooms of students, schools, school districts, and states are doing compared with one another; would include a year-to-year measurement of individual students as they progress through the public schools

b. Opponents argue that such a measurement will not induce positive change in education

II. Higher education

A. Administration

1. Since the end of World War II, there has been a major expansion of community colleges; the trend is

to create separate college districts to operate and raise funds for local community colleges

2. States support many kinds of universities and colleges; state colleges and universities are governed by

boards appointed by the governor in some states and elected by the voters in others

3. With over 78 percent of college students attending publicly supported institutions, control and

support of higher education have become significant political questions

B. Funding higher education

1. Almost all of our institutions of higher education receive some kind of government subsidy, so that

students seldom pay the full cost of their education

2. The national government and most states provide some kinds of need-based student financial

assistance in the form of loans and grants, with students in the greatest financial need at the higher-cost institutions eligible for the most aid

3. There is an inverse relationship between rising state spending on corrections and decreasing state

spending on higher education

III. Social services

A. Welfare

1. The 1996 welfare reform law shifts the administrative burden entirely to the states; AFDC is now

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which states direct through block grants that generally require state matching funds

2. The welfare overhaul legislation of 1996 was an act of catching up with state welfare programs

3. States are now the prime laboratories for social policy

a. Responsibility contracts

b. Workfare programs

c. Opportunity zones

B. Public health

1. Prevention and disease control are still major public health activities

2. Public health issues of today are smoking, pollution, and AIDS

2. Every state has an agency, usually called a Department of Health, that administers the state program

and supervises local health officials

3. The U.S. health care crisis has become acute; it involves access and the dramatic rise in costs

4. HMOs are a focal point in the debate; they try to keep costs down but many charge they provide

inadequate care

5. States have won massive compensation from tobacco companies for costs of treating tobacco-related

illnesses; 1998 suit with $206 billion settlement

IV. Criminal justice

A. Major state and local powers stem from police powers of protecting safety of citizens

B. The state police became a part of our law-enforcement system for many reasons

1. The breakdown of rural law enforcement

2. The coming of the automobile

3. The need for a trained force to maintain order during emergencies

4. With mobility, professionalism, and rigorous training, state police are less likely to develop the

problems of local police

C. Other police forces

1. There are liquor law enforcement officials, fish and game wardens, fire wardens, detective bureaus,

and special motor vehicle police

2. At the local level, almost every municipality maintains its own police force; the county has a sheriff

and deputies, and some townships have their own police officers

3. With the increase in crime, violence, and gangs, the importance of local law enforcement officers has

grown; currently, local governments spend more than $35 billion on police protection

D. Federal-state action

1. The national government has gradually moved into law enforcement

2. Federal law enforcement agencies include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

3. With increased national and state expenditures, crime rates have been declining

E. Racial Profiling

1. Some police have used profiling techniques based on race

2. Courts have not agreed in the practice of racial profiling

V. Planning the urban community

A. Zoning laws

1. The most common method of assuring orderly growth is zoning - creating specific areas and limiting

the uses to which property may be put in each area

2. Zoning ordinances are no better than their enforcement; incentives to make exceptions are powerful

3. Planning is now also concerned with quality of life, with many policy areas involved

B. Controlling growth

1. Critics are skeptical about whether state and local officials can stop “Los Angelization” of the United

States

2. Planning and sensible growth depend on public support, market forces, and political collaboration

VI. Environment

A. National environment standards

1. The Federal Environmental Protection Act, passed in 1970, created the Environmental Protection

Agency; other acts dealing with specific environmental problems followed

2. The basic model of environmental regulation has been for the federal government to set national

standards in water quality and air quality; state and local governments are then charged with

implementing these standards and monitoring compliance

3. States have long argued that these unfunded mandates impose a heavy financial burden on them;

water and sewage services are the largest local government expenditure

B. Waste management is an area with increased state involvement

C. Some states have taken the lead in environmental regulation (e.g., California)

VII. Transportation

A. Highway construction

1. The national government has supported state highway construction since 1916, and federal aid has

increased over the years;

2. States do the planning, estimate the costs, arrange the construction work, and submit their plans and

have their work inspected by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)

3. Under the Federal Highway Act of 1956, states planned and built the National System of Interstate

and Defense Highways

B. Major surface transportation act passed in 1998

1. $216 billion for highway construction, repairs, safety programs, mass transit

2. Act was financed by federal gas tax of 18.3 cents per gallon

VIII. Economic development

A. State and local governments have recently emphasized economic development to provide jobs for citizens

B. States compete with one another because economic development is the key to increasing the tax base that funds government services

C. “Competitive federalism” between states has intensified in the 1990s, to the point that localities are worried about keeping the jobs they have, not just persuading new companies to move to their area

IX. Regulation

A. Public utilities

1. Public utilities include water plants, electric power companies, telephone companies, railroads, and buses

2. Distinguished from other businesses because government gives them special privileges, such as the power of eminent domain, the right to use public streets, and protection from competition; in return, utilities are required to give the public adequate service at reasonable rates

3. Every state has a utilities commission to ensure that utilities operate in the interest of the public; the commissions must strike a balance between fair rates for consumers and adequate profits for the

utility companies

4. Technology and innovation are driving the deregulation of utilities across the nation, especially

telephone and electricity

5. Politics of regulation is growing interest to many consumer groups

B. Employers and employees

1. Health and safety legislation

2. Workers’ compensation

3. Child labor

4. Consumer protection—for safety and fraud prevention

X. The importance of state and local policy

A. State role has been strengthened as the national government has turned to the states

B. Strong economy and innovative governors have also encouraged dynamic state policy actions