Spring 2009 Course Description
Politics and Process
| Section Title: |
Politics and Process of School Policy |
| Instructor(s): |
Lodis Rhodes |
| Course: |
P A 383C - Politics and Process
(previously Policy Development) |
| Unique Number: |
62230 |
| Day & Time: |
Wednesdays, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Room: |
SRH 3.108 |
| 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: Public schools and colleges are a major battlefield in a culture war of attrition. Examples? Texas' K-12 public schools are now to include a bible-based course as part of the required curriculum. The Texas Top-Ten Rule and Robin Hood funding are policies intended to improve access and quality. Both have become an electric third-rail for many elected state-officials. College administrators weigh policies their campuses that balance free-speech and civility. Common sense, student learning, and the democratic process are major casualties in this war.
This course takes a quick look at the history of public schooling with an eye on its purported role as a social leveler. The point here is to see and understand that public schooling is built on a rather narrow base, individual self-determinism coupled with a professed faith in liberal democratic institutions. The irony is the base supports ever-widening patterns of inequalities in income and wealth at home and abroad. It may be time to re-think the base. The course then moves on to examine how legislators and policymakers gauge the battlefield and seek tactical advantages. This is the policy process in action. The action unfolds during the 81st Texas Legislature, which convenes January 13, 2009. The task will be to track several pieces of school and university related legislation as they are filed and move through the legislative process. The course is appropriate for students with active, well-defined research interests in education policy. It may suit beginning graduate students interested in school reform and the broader issues of social inequality, race, and class.
Return to Spring 2009 Course Schedule
