Summer (2nd Session) 2006 Course Description
Advanced Topics in Public Policy
| Section Title: |
Education Equity and School Finance |
| Instructor(s): |
Debra Haas |
| Course: |
P A 388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy
(previously Seminar in Topics in Public Policy) |
| Unique Number: |
96339 |
| Day & Time: |
Tuesdays, Thursdays, 6:00 PM - 9:45 PM |
| Room: |
SRH 3.102 |
| Waitlist Information: | For LBJ Students: UT Waitlist Information
For Non LBJ Students: LBJ School Waitlist Instructions |
This course fulfills requirements for the following specialization(s):
Description: State Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education ? Understanding the Relationship Between Equality and Equity will review issues related to public education finance using approaches that use both policy (qualitative) and data (quantitative) analysis. The course will cover the development and evolution of education finance concepts including ?equity?, ?adequacy?, and ?efficiency? as they relate to the funding of public elementary and secondary education.
Students will use a variety of resources including texts, legal briefs and court decisions, legislative and executive study reports, state and federal statutes, and information from public school databases to develop and understanding of the history and current status of public education finance.
The course will focus primarily on Texas, but will also examine significant events at the national level and in other states.
Course Content:The course will consist of two sections, each with a different policy related assignment.
The first section will be a historical review the evolution of the concept of equal education under the law, and cover major policy issues that arose from Brown v. Board of Education (1950?s) to Serrano and Rodriguez (1970?s). This portion of the course will focus on concepts including:
- Separate but Equal
- Equal Rights to Education under Federal Law
- The return of the question to state courts
The second section will look at the cases and policy analysis questions that arose after the Supreme Court failed to declare a federal right to equal education under the Fourteenth Amendment and turned the question back to state legislatures. Concepts addressed in this portion of the course will include:
- District Power Equalization (Taxpayer Equity)
- Funding based on variations in Student Need (special educational programs)
- State versus local control of and responsibility for funding
- The evolution of the relationship between student performance (testing) and educational equality
- Understanding the structure of the equalized system of school finance in Texas.
- Understanding the concept of ?efficiency? in public education as defined by student performance.
Student Assignments and Grades: The first assignment (due approximately at the end of the first four class meetings) will be 7-10 page policy brief explaining the evolution of the concept of equal education under the law. The brief will be written from the standpoint of a policy staff person writing for a decision-maker.
Return to Summer (2nd Session) 2006 Course Schedule
