Discussion board and reply -Developing Public Policy Solutions
Public Policy Analysis: Proposing Solutions
“We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.”
–Alice Paul
Policy analysis is the study of public policy concern and the development of a solution to the public policy concern. Public policy analysis borrows from rational decision making. According to Michael Kraft, in rational decision making, “one defines a problem, indicates the goals and objectives to be sought, considers a range of alternative solutions, evaluates each of the alternatives to clarify their consequences, and then recommends or chooses the alternative with the greatest potential for solving the problem” (Kraft, 2018). According to Kraft, Public policy analysis contains five steps:
Step 1: Define and analyze the problem.
Who, what, when, where, and why is there a public policy problem?
Step 2: Construct policy alternatives.
What are the possible, public policy options?
Step 3: Choose evaluative criteria.
How do we evaluate the possible, public policy options?
Step 4: Assess the alternatives.
Which alternatives are better?
Step 5: Draw conclusions.
Which public policy option will you choose?
The Centers for Disease Control has an excellent resource on how the institution practices policy analysis.
A key component of public policy analysis is proposing solutions for the public policy concern. Once one identifies the problem then one can offer possible public policy solutions.
Alice Paul’s suffragist activism is an example of proposing solutions for the public policy concern.
The Quaker Alice Paul (influenced by her time with the British suffragettes) was more aggressive than the more demure advocates of women’s suffrage in America. Her group, the Congressional Union and National Woman’s Party, often came into conflict with women who were frightened by the bolder tactics of Paul and her supporters. Paul argued for a constitutional amendment (as opposed to the approach focusing on state action) to guarantee women the right to vote. Paul and her supporters utilized civil disobedience by protesting outside the White House, imploring President Woodrow Wilson to support suffrage for American women. She was arrested and while in jail Alice Paul started a hunger strike, but prison officials forcibly fed her. Even with that, Alice Paul would not back down, and she continued to agitate for what eventually became the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution (Kraditor, 1965).
For more information on Alice Pauls’s impact on political, public policy, please watch PBS’s documentary, “Alice Paul: The Suffragist”.
Directions: Using the required, academic readings, and supplemental academic research, please address the following while adhering to the Discussion Board Rubric:
- Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
- Economic policy
- An example of economic policy is U.S. budget deficit spending.
- Education policy
- An example of education policy are the implementation of charter schools.
- Environmental policy
- An example of environmental policy is the Clean Air Act.
- Foreign policy
- An example of foreign policy is the interplay between civil liberties and the Patriot Act.
- Healthcare policy
- An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
- Welfare policy
- An example of welfare policy is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
- Economic policy
- What public policy solution(s) may alleviate the public policy concerning issue?
- What could your local, state, the federal government do?
- What could individuals or groups do?
- Assess the cost-benefits for either taking action or not taking action.
- How feasible are your public policy solutions?
- How might society react to your public policy solutions?
- What are the ethical implications of the public policy solution?
- How can one better ‘frame’ the public policy solutions?
Reference:
Kraditor, A. (1965). The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920. New York: W. W. Norton.
Mason Cowan posted Nov 20, 2020 9:10 PM
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What public policy solution may alleviate the public policy concerning issue?
In Colorado Springs, there is a park right downtown called Dorchester Park. For years, this park has been notorious for homeless people to hang around. The park land was owned by the Dorr family, and donated to the city many years ago. When the Dorr family donated the park, they stipulated that the land must remain free for public use, otherwise the family would re-inherit the property. Long story short, the city has been able to remove the park from the protected list, so now the government is attempting to sell or renovate the property due to the crime rates in the area and drug use from the homeless inhabitants at the park. This is certainly a controversial issue for the local citizens in the area. Many people want the homeless people pushed out of the park because of the property being full of trash, drug paraphernalia, and the general rise in crime associated with the homeless people in the park. However, some people believe that it is inhumane to remove these people, and that it is against the Dorr family’s wishes to sell the park.
A potential solution to this issue is to provide the homeless people of Dorchester Park information on homeless shelters and rehabilitation facilities that are apart of the state and local welfare programs.
What could your local, state, the federal government do?
There are dozens of homeless shelters in Colorado Springs, but it is important that the local government properly inform homeless people of these places. Sgt. Olav Chaney (2020) works as a police officer for the Colorado Springs PD, and he is a supervisor for a homeless outreach team. He says that there are roughly 750 beds in Colorado Springs, and typically only 350 of them are full. So, it is not as if the homeless people have nowhere to go, Sgt. Chaney tends to think that the homeless people prefer the streets because shelters prohibit drug use.
What could individuals or groups do?
There are many charity organizations, churches, and groups such as Volunteers of America may be able to reach these homeless people and provide them with resources to get help and shelter.
Assess the cost-benefits for either taking action or not taking action.
There is no necessary cost-benefit. The resources to help these homeless people are already available, they are just under-utilized. The real solution is just for more information to be provided so that the homeless people being forced out of Dorchester Park have somewhere more stable to go to.
How feasible are your public policy solutions?
These solutions are very feasible. Colorado Springs has entire police units designed to assist and support homeless people, so spreading awareness is very feasible.
How might society react to your public policy solutions?
I think people would be happy to see that we are not just forgetting about the unfortunate citizens of our community. If the local government and police continue to help the homeless, while also maintaining the cleanliness and safety of our city, there would be a pretty unanimous positive reaction.
What are the ethical implications of the public policy solution?
Ethically, one could argue that it is wrong to displace homeless people who have been residing in a park for years. Others may argue that the government is ethically wrong for allowing homeless people to reside in the city and destroy Dorchester Park. There have been many assault incidents where homeless people attack innocent bystanders in this area. It is a delicate moral balance of helping those in need and protected the rest of the local populace.
How can one better ‘frame’ the public policy solutions?
If the local citizens understand that these homeless people are not being mistreated or forgotten about, I believe people will have a better opinion about this issue going on in the Springs area.
Reference:
Kelley, D. (2020, October 27). Hundreds persist in living on the streets in Colorado Springs even with a surplus of shelter beds. Retrieved November 21, 2020, from https://gazette.com/homeless/hundreds-persist-in-l…
Shinn, M. (2020, September 17). Homeless hangout in Colorado Springs off list of protected parks, paving way for redevelopment. Retrieved November 21, 2020, from https://gazette.com/news/homeless-hangout-in-color…
Unit 6 Initial Discussion Post
Teice Cruz posted Nov 21, 2020 4:13 PM
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For this discussion I have decided to use the Colorado Clean Indoor Act which was built to alleviate secondhand smoke and emissions from tobacco, marijuana, and electronic smoking devices. In 2006 the “General Assembly passed the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act which prohibits tobacco, marijuana, and E cigarette products being used in indoor areas throughout the state.” (Andris Jr, 2015) Even with this act in place this seems to be an ongoing issue here in Colorado because there are exceptions to the ban that has been put in place which include:
- private residences and private automobiles, except those used for child day care
- any retail tobacco business
- a cigar-tobacco bar
- marijuana dispensaries
I believe that Colorado as a whole could add these places in the ban. Children and elderly reside in some of these places and don’t have a choice of what they are breathing in cars, homes, and other businesses. The entire state of Colorado needs to follow what the city of Boulder, Colorado has done. Boulder has set up a ban not only indoor all businesses and homes but even outdoor in parks, bus stops, and entrances to businesses. Any individual breaking the ban will be fined. I believe that society would react in a negative way if they are smokers and a positive way if they are not. There are too many people affected by second hand smoke and acquiring breathing issues and cancers. Children don’t have the choice to be around the smoke and it can affect their health years and years later in life.
Reference
Andris Jr, J. M. (2015). Adopting Proactive Standards to Protect Americans in Indoor Environments: Volatile Organic Compound Emissions Regulation. William & Mary Law Review, 56(5), 1947–1986.
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