1.please watch the documentary "The Revisionaries Links to an external site.."
https://tubitv.com/movies/54909/the-revisionariesLinks to an external site.
In the film, the role of the Texas State Board of Education is heavily critiqued. Based upon the critiques portrayed in the film and your own research of k-12 policymaking in Texas, is there a need for reform?
In your response consider the following sub questions (These are questions to consider. This is not a check list of questions you are required to answer).
• What are the primary critiques of education policy in Texas being made in the documentary?
• How is the State Board of Education selected? What is an argument against the selection method? What is an argument in favor of how SBOE members are selected?
• The film is obviously critical of the conservative members of the SBOE. What are other biases in the film?
• What are the implications of the decisions made by the SBOE?
• Should the SBOE be reformed? If so, how?
Remember, this discussion requires you to do some light individual research outside of the film (the textbook covers education policy. Since the making of the film, consider whether education policymaking has improved or worsened. What are your findings?
- Recent mass shootings (of the mostly African American patrons in a Buffalo, New York grocery store, the mass shooting of Taiwanese worshipers at a church in Laguna Woods, California, and most recently, the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas) highlight the complexity of moral and political factors American policy issues often represent.
While all of these incidents are fundamentally incidents of mass violence, hatred, and loss of life, to some they also involve issues of civil rights (the targeting of racial groups) and civil liberties (gun rights)—issues that policymakers are perpetually challenged to address.
What can we do as a nation to address such incidents? What types of policies are needed? Where do we even begin to prevent such incidents from happening again?
3.
We are currently exploring the role of public opinion polls in American politics. Survey research impacts every stage of the policymaking process. Policymakers consider public opinion to better understand their constituents and the issues that are important to them. Public opinion also helps legislators formulate policy solutions and ultimately make critical policy decisions. However, public opinion is not always rooted in fact. In fact, many Americans lack knowledge about basic information related to American government. Moreover, we sometimes act in ways that contradict the sentiment we express.
Political scientist V.O. Key, Jr. describes the relations between public opinion and policymaking through the concept of latent opinion. Latent opinion is what public opinion would be at election time if a political opponent made a public official’s position on the issue the target of a campaign attack.
Political scientist James A. Stimson theorizes that public officials use public opinion to consider a range of policy options, a zone of acquiescence.
Should policy makers base their decisions on public opinion? Why or why not?
For consideration, see the following articles:
"Analysis: When Texas legislators admit they don’t know what they’re doing" (https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/07/texas-lawmakers/ Links to an external site.)
University of Texas/Texas Tribune Polls (https://www.texastribune.org/series/ut-tt-polls/ Links to an external site.)
Project 538 Texas Polls: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/governor/2022/texas/ Links to an external site.
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