Unit 6: Public and Foreign Policy
Lesson Title: Identifying Public Policy Issues
Day(s) Required: 1 Day
Minnesota State Social Studies Standards:
Essential Question:
What is public policy and how do we identify public policy issues?
Engage:
Understanding public policy is an important component as one needs to understand how they interact with public policy daily. For example public policy is known as the laws that are enforced daily, so if you are caught speeding and get a speeding ticket, this is an example of public policy. Although when you watch television, you are being impacted by public policy as well. For example as a television shows plays you might not know that what you are watching has been regulated by the Federal Trade Commission or Federal Communications Commission. Another example of public policy are income taxes that are needed to be paid for every April 15. What you may or may not know, tax actually serves as the revenue to fund things such as roads, police officers, firefighters, and schools.
So what do you think is public policy? Brainstorm this term and share your ideas in Activity 6.2.1: Introduction.
Explain:
Public policy is a cycle that is cyclical, meaning that after a problem is defined it will go through a series of events before possibly returning to defining the problem. Let’s look at these steps a bit more closely as we look at an idea proposed by the state legislature of increasing the time of driving with a permit to one year.
Defining the problem - Public policy first starts out by defining the problem. This means that an individual, the legislature, or a government entity will see a problem that needs to be rectified. Often legislators are prompted by special interest groups who have previously identified the problem. In this case, insurance companies have seen that newly licensed drivers with only six months of experience are often finding themselves in accidents within the first six months. The special interest group for the insurance companies, feel that it is important that the legislature increases the requirement of the permit time, this then leads to a definition of the problem.
Developing alternative courses of action - The next step is that the legislature (possibly also shared by the special interest group) then needs to develop alternative courses of action. One course of action would be that everyone with a permit would be required to keep it for one year, regardless if they started when the requirement was six months. Another course of action would be to wait until a specified date and then require that all new permit holders must carry their permit for one year. It is then important for the legislators to look at each alternative deliberately.
Evaluating the consequences of each alternative - The next step will be to look at the alternatives closely and as a whole. For example, by increasing the time with a permit the legislature is asking for an additional commitment from a parent/guardian to monitor the new driver, this applies to both alternatives.
Once all of the alternatives are discussed (and often in cases of public policy there are far more than two alternatives), the legislature or government entity then selects a course of action.
Selecting a course of action - The line, “Choose the path of least resistance” can be either the best option or the worst. The legislature or government entity needs to choose an action to take, this will be looking at what is the best option. If due diligence has been under taken during the evaluation process then the facts will aid in selecting the course of action. In the case of increasing the time with permits, the legislature has decided to select a particular date to start the increase from six months to one year of required permit holding.
Design a plan to implement the action - Once the course of action has been decided it is time to establish how this action will be implemented. In this case, the legislature has decided that January 1st of next year will be the date when the new law comes in to effect. This date is far enough out that those who want to get through drivers education can still do so, yet short enough that there will not be a huge influx of individuals wanting to take drivers education. This completes the public policies packet, if done correctly it will be a well defined packet to begin the problem resolution stage.
Resolve the problem - The final step is to resolve the problem. This often can be the most time consuming part, especially when it comes to changing laws. Once the problem is presented it often goes to the legislature for debate and voting. If the public policy is well-defined and there is little debate then it will be resolved quickly. Although if the proposed public policy requires a lot of change and has subsequent the debate the problem can be returned to the defining the problem stage.
Explore:
Now that you have an understanding of the public policy cycle, we are going to look at the Minneapolis Star Tribune to find public policy issues. The newspaper is a great resource to look at how public policy is currently impacting day-to-day life. Be aware that some articles may not have the answers to all of the questions below, although might link back to previous related articles.
In small groups select one article that addresses public policy. Read this article in its entirety and identify the public policy cycle:
Prepare with your small group a short oral presentation (about 2-3) minutes where you will share with the rest of the class about the public policy. Once that is done, upload a brief summary (150-200 words) with the names of all your group members to Activity 6.2.1: Identifying Public Policy Issues.
Expand:
For your assignment we are going to have you look at another article from the local newspaper of your area, you may use The Patch to find a local paper near you or access your local paper. Read an article and identify the following.
Upload this information to Activity 6.2.1: Understanding and Identifying Local Public Policy Issues.
Access Activity 6.2.1: Closing Reflection and answer the following questions: