Policy Debates on Education Reform

An issue that continually inundates the news, policy debates, and political elections is that of education reform. While most parties are in agreement that education reform is needed, the views on what is considered the appropriate method of reform vary across the gamut. Three areas of reform that appear to attract the most attention are reforms involving teachers, standardization, and school vouchers and charter schools. Within each area, there are many proposed solutions.

Each solution appeals to varying principles considered necessary for 'good public policy'. Often two solutions may appeal to the same principle but with different interpretations creating contradicting and sometimes opposing. How do we determine what are the appropriate interpretations and thereby, the appropriate solutions? Who should decide which are the appropriate solutions?

In Policy Paradox, Deborah Stone (2002) lays out key goals for public-policy making. These factors include equity, efficiency, security, and liberty. Equity can relate to who are recipients of a policy, what is to be distributed, and the social procedures for distributing the policy. Efficiency involves maximizing output for a given input, taking into consideration what is the output goal, the value of various inputs and outputs, and weighing opportunity costs.

To create security, one must determine what is deemed necessary for safety and survival and must create methods to evaluate resources and standards of comparison. Finally, America is built on the ideals of liberty, the freedom to do what one wants, but in policy-making the line must be drawn as to when and how liberty should be restricted for the good of the public.

Often times in policy applications these principles interact and sometimes counteract one another making the process of creating good public policy greatly complicated, as we will see in the case of education reform.