11.7: Conclusion

Public policy, simply put, is what governments do. It is the product of the political and governing processes. People become involved in order to influence how police interact with the public, to ensure that electricity is available when it is freezing outside, to obtain quality education for their children, to minimize traffic congestion, and all sorts of other things. If you read through a newspaper, watch a news show, or scroll through a website, chances are what you are reading concerns some aspect of public policy. If you understand public policy, and all its aspects and facets, you understand politics and government.

And while the federal system still seems complex, you should begin to grasp the roles that the different levels of government play, including the areas where their powers overlap. You should especially understand what functions state and local governments perform, and how they divide their responsibilities accordingly. You should have a basic understanding of what a market is, and why a government might choose to become involved in its transactions.

Finally, and especially, you should know and be comfortable with the specific policies Texas engages in, and how those are tied into the various agencies the legislature has created over time. Even if these don’t make complete sense to you right now, they should help you process the information you receive regarding the activities of the state. The more you follow them, the more you should be able to process and understand what they do, which also gives you the knowledge necessary to an effective citizen.

Key Terms and Concepts

Affordable Care Act (ACA). A law passed in 2010 which significantly expanded access to health insurance and Medicaid.

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). A program established by the Social Security Act of 1935 as a grant program to enable states to provide cash welfare payments for needy children who had been deprived of parental support or care.

Agency Capture. Also referred to as regulatory capture. It occurs when an executive agency which is intended to regulate an industry, is instead controlled by the industry it is to regulate. American Federal System. The division of governmental power into three levels with defined, though often overlapping functions. These are the national, state and local levels.

Charter Schools. An elementary or secondary school operated by a private group that has received a charter from the state authorizing it to do so. They receive state funds, and are required to follow state education law, but are granted flexibility in doing so.

Edgewood Independent School District v. Kirby. A case filed in the Texas courts arguing that the states reliance on local property taxes to help fund public schools led to a disparity in funding that violated the state constitution. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately agreed, which led to the legislature’s decision to create the recapture program, also known as the Robin Hood Plan. Externality. A violation of the efficiencies promised by the marketplace. These are impacts – negative or positive – on individuals uninvolved in a specific transaction. Governments sometime step in to ensure that producers bear all the costs of production and pass those along to consumers.

Great Society. The name given to a series of a domestic programs during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson that included Medicare and Medicaid.

Higher Education Fund (HEF). A funding system established to provide consistent funding to the state universities that were not included in the Permanent University Fund. These include the Texas Tech and University of Houston Systems.

Immigration. The movement of people from one nation to another with the goal of resettlement. Infrastructure. The general term for the basic physical systems that facilitate transportation, communications, sewage, water, and electricity.

Iron Triangle. The relationship that develops between congressional committees, the federal bureaucracy and interest groups during policy creation and influences the formation and maintenance of public policy.

Log Rolling. The practice of exchanging favors, especially in politics by reciprocal voting for each other's proposed legislation.

Market. The systems that allow for parties to exchange goods and services. Most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services, including labor power and financial instruments, to buyers in exchange for money.

Market Failure. The economic situation where the distribution of goods and services in the free market is inefficient. Leading causes are the existence of monopolies and the unequal availability about a given product.

Medicaid. A joint federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources.

Medicare. A purely federal program that obtains and redistributes funds that help with health care costs for qualified older people.

Monopoly. An example of market failure where there is only one supplier for a good and service demanded in the market. Monopolies can result in high prices for low quality products because options do not exist for consumers.

Naturalization. The process, granted to the national government, which allows a non-citizen to acquire citizenship or nationality.

New Deal. A series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. It marked a change in the relationship between the national and state governments.

Permanent University Fund (PUF). A fund established in the 19^th Century creating a permanent source of funding, drawn from public land, for the Texas A&M and University of Texas systems.

Pre-approved State Textbook Selection. A controversial power granted to the State Board of Education. They establish a list of textbooks that are approved for use by public schools across

Public Goods. An additional example of market failure. These are goods that are demanded, but are such that there is no rational reason for a private entity to supply them as there is no way that people can be charged for their use.

Public Policy. Those goods and services that a government choose to provide.

Revolving Door. A movement of personnel between various roles, often around a specific area of public policy. These include serving as legislators, regulators, and interest groups.

Rule of Capture. A rule regarding ownership of goods beneath the ground, such as water and oil. Based in the British common law, it holds landowners who extract or “capture” groundwater, oil, or gas from a well that bottoms within the subsurface of their land acquire absolute ownership of what they draw.

San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez. A case filed in federal courts by poorer school districts that argued that Texas’ reliance on locally collected property taxes violated the equal protection clause. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed by claiming that education was not a fundamental right that was subject to the equal protection clause.

Sanctuary Cities. A term most recently used to describe local governments that refuse to implement immigration laws passed by the national government. They provide sanctuary to undocumented residents.

School Vouchers. A method of providing government funding for any school selected by students or their parents. The money that would have normally gone to a public school, follows the student to wherever they choose to go.

Social Security. A system of old age insurance established in the Social Security Act of 1935. Workers pay into a national program that then redistributes benefits based on a formula when the workers are eligible for them.

Standardized Testing. An examination that is administered across all schools in a common manner in order to attempt to evaluate the ability of schools to effectively educate their students. Sweatt v. Painter. A 1950 United States Supreme Court decision that argued that the state of Texas violated the equal protection clause by denying Heman Sweat admittance to the University of Texas Law School. The attempt to abide by the separate but equal doctrine by creating the Texas Southern University Law School was insufficient.

State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The name of the standardized tests used by Texas beginning in 2012.

Supply and Demand. The two elements that meet in the marketplace. In the ideal market, where they overlap provides efficiency in both pricing, and in the amount of a good or service provided. Inefficiencies are used to justify governmental intervention.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The program which replaced AFDC in the 1990s It provides grant funds to states families with financial assistance and related support services. States are free to limit access to the programs and require work requirements. State- administered programs may include childcare assistance, job preparation, and work assistance. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). The agency of Texas government that oversees all public post-secondary education in the state.

Uneven information. More formally called informational asymmetries, another example of market failure. Producers of a good or service know more about its actual value than consumers. Laws are often passed ensuring that this imbalance is addressed, and that producers provide relevant information to consumers.