- Does the case study "Expectations" illustrate a type of what Light calls a particular "tide" of reform? How should Bennet have better crafted his reorganization strategy before he implemented it? Learned more about the community that Manual served? Communicated his ideas for change more effectively? Considered what power (per Long's article) he could draw upon and what power to oppose his reforms was available? What are the seminal lessons in this case regarding effective planning for administrative reorganization in order to ensure success?
Light discusses in the Chapter that there are certain “tides” of reform which lead to organizational changes. He goes on to discuss about the nature and procedures of such reforms which are in seen to be in effect in the organizations. Of the four fundamental ideas which drive such reforms, in the case of the Manual High School, which is described in detail by Katherine Boo in the Case Study named, Expectations, the authority was seen to adhere to the idea of liberation management. This idea of reform was validated by Clinton administration’s 1994 reinventing government package for liberation management. This form of reform procedure rests on the commitment and innovation of the teams, agencies and individuals. They work in collaboration to finally reach better results.
In the case of Manual High too, the matter was left intertwined among several key participants whose commitment and innovation could lead to the success of the initiative. The process was lengthy and complex and the students, the institutions, the parents and the mentors along with the funds and authorities, all had their roles to play in the process of reform. The students had to comprehend the fact that the initiative was meant for their good and in no way mocked their education of the previous years. The parents needed to be supportive of the initiative as their stand was a key factor. The mentors were required to aid the weak students so that they could fare well in the exams and thus show improvement. The flow of funds was of huge importance in the initiative and the competence and sensibility of the authority was also very much important as there were impediments which were showing up in the process of the reform.
Bennet took the initiative of closing down Manual High soon after he took over the position of Chief of Staff to the mayor in the month of February, 2006. Bennet was greatly concerned about the falling grades of the students in the institution and jumped into action to ensure better education and facilities to all of the students of Manual High. However, he could not comprehend the various complexities which would impede the process of reform. Bennet had planned to transfer all the students at the school to other institutions which had a better track record. Although the school was successful in the past years, in recent times, the academic records had deteriorated and the discipline too was very weak there.
However, Bennet failed to foresee the impediments which could occlude the path of reform of Manual High. The complexities surfaced gradually and the situation almost went haywire to the sheer problems of the authority. Bennet had failed to comprehend that a vast number of Latinas read in Manual High and the sudden closing down of the institution might have an adverse effect on the students and their families. The students were shocked to know that their school was meant to be closed down by the authorities. Even the teachers were skeptical about the reform movement of Bennet which complicated the situation much more.
Bennet needed to communicate with the student and the parents before implementing the procedures. But the shortcoming led to unfavorable consequences. Protests broke out in the state and students united to march up to the office of the Superintendent on February 17th. The vehemently demanded that Manual High should be kept open. Bennet did not understand that the students took their educational institution as a part of their identity and such an abrupt closure was quite a shock to them. They all felt that whatever education they had received for so long was nothing was farce. The students were being tagged as failures and were being shifted to other schools, thus validating that they were incompetent. Bennet could have averted this complexity by putting across his ideas before the mass before he decided to proceed with the plan of reform. He should have discussed and took suggestions from the people and campaigned greatly to condition the masses for such a radical reform. Bennet failed to comprehend that there can be a controversy regarding racism due to the huge number of people from the community who read in Manual High. As a result, the protests gained momentum. Also, the protests were being backed by education activists from outside the state who belonged to an NGO. To complicate the situation even more, many of the black leaders joined the protests as it was believed that the Manual High reform was actually a racist approach of the authority against the community. Bennet was accused of being a racist himself and the entire process of reform was thus severely impeded. He came to realize the gaps of communication between the masses and the authority which was to be blamed for the occurrence.
Bennet had also recruited about 250 mentors who were meant to coach the students who would be transferred to other schools from Manual High. But, unfortunately, the gap in communication and the perception among the people about Bennet and the reform was so negative that most of the transferred students refused to take help from the mentors. The school authorities had strict rules about checking which prevented many students from meeting their mentors. This problem could have been solved if Bennet would have campaigned vigorously among the members of the community about the usefulness of mentors for the betterment of the academic standard of the students. The main problem in the reform procedure was the fact that Bennet had good intentions behind the reform, but had seriously failed to get public support in favor of the procedure and the rather came across as someone who was doing it purposely against the community and the students.
Bennet also ended up being in the bad books of many teachers as they got only 2 percent increment in their salary which they considered to be very disrespectful. The entire procedure seemed to go haywire in the wake of so many problems. Bennet should have organized meetings with the teachers across the state and explain the economic condition of the education board and thus endeavored to make the teachers understand the reason behind taking a decision of granting only 2 percent increment of their salary.
Bennet never consulted the other players in the reform before taking decisions and hence found this steps getting resisted on every instance. The entire plan for reorganization should have been communicated with the civilians and their consent should have been ensured first before proceeding with the reform initiative. The community should have been learnt about by Bennet and any possible misinterpretations of racism and discrimination should have been nullified through campaigning and communication.
Bennet did understand where he went wrong and thus took the initiative to approach the students personally and make them convinced of the importance of joining a better school for getting education. He and his associates toiled hard to reach out to every student and make the students turn up in the schools. He did succeed in his endeavor. However, these efforts could have proven the most useful if he would have comprehended the importance of communication before proceeding with the reform.
The impetus working against Bennet’s reform initiative was huge. The students themselves were against the move and protested vehemently against the procedure. The local black politicians and the education activists got involved and the situation got very complicated. The parents and even the teachers were not sure about what Bennet was trying to do with Manual High and the students’ future. Another problem for Bennet was succeeding in getting the fund required for the reform. He, however, succeeded in this and the reform movement went ahead in spite of all the problems. It was the sheer strength of character and confidence of the authoritative figure which stood against the protests and saw the reform succeed.
The case of Manual High provides one with seminal lessons regarding the process of effective planning for administrative reorganization in order to ensure success of the reform. It is very important to involve the people who would be affected by the reform and the authorities should make them understand the positives of the reform. Thus, there would be no room for misinterpretation and any protests or resistance could also be avoided. The demographics and community needs to be closely researched by the authorities to comprehend their needs and apprehensions. The people who would be instrumental in the process o reform should be convinced about the utility and effectiveness of the procedure. There should be no clash of interests among the people involved in carrying out the reform. The authority should be strong enough to face any challenges and ensure the success of the process braving all odds which might impede the path of betterment.
- How does the case of "Reinventing School Lunch" policy illustrate or not illustrateHeclo's concept of issue networks? What implications does the issue nefwork theory hold for the training of public administrators? Does it essentially alter the types of jobs, tasks, and roles they perform? Has it altered your own thinking about what you need to know in order to be more effective as a public administrator?
The National School Lunch Program is a famous program which sets the example for learning about public policy and the involved functionality. The case requires to be studied closely to have a proper understanding of the complexities involved with the matter and in addition, if one refers to Heclo’s opinion of issue networks, it would be possible to fully comprehend the qualities and responsibilities which are associated with the success of such programs which aim at providing welfare services to the public of the state.
Laura S. Sims discusses how the National School Lunch Program is overseen at the state level by the state department of education and by the school district administration at the local level. Almost all public schools and most private schools come under the domain of this mentioned program. In this program, meals are served according to a three-tier system. Children who have their household income below 130 percent of poverty get free meals. Also, the children who belong to households with poverty level ranging from 130 to 185 percent get meals at reduced prices. However, the children who come from households above the stipulated 185 percent mark have to pay for their meals fully.
The schools get subsidies by ascertaining the number of students in the mentioned categories who are part of the school feeding program. It is to be taken into consideration that in the particular case while an “education” committee in the House actually gives authorization to the program mentioned, the funding is cleared by the “agriculture” subcommittee. A number of coalitions have been made for carrying out the NSLP. Thus, a coordination and commitment on the part of all the key members is required for the successful functioning of the program. This structure of functioning is actually what is described by Heclo as the issue network.
This whole system is dependent on the issue networks which consist of a large number of participants with varied amount of mutual dependence and commitment on the other members of the domain. In issue networks, none of the members are in supreme control of the program and the participants rather move in and out of the program. It needs to be kept in mind that the administrator involved in issue network needs to be a policy activist knowing the members of the program through the issues. It is to be comprehended that issue network is a shared knowledge group and is related to public policy. Hence, the people who belong to the issue network need to have a better knowledge and understanding of the contextual policy and the people should also be capable of assessing the problems.
It is part and parcel for the issue network to endeavor and search for complexity in what might apparently seem simple to the eyes. It requires to be comprehended that the policy objectives are vague and the results can be very tedious to gauge. An action that is relevant for one policy goal can actually be inconsistent with others. What remains to be the omnipotent objective of an individual working as a policy administrator is the ambition to attain consensus. This would mean smooth running of the procedures and the aim of the program would also be achieved without any impediments. Another quality of major importance for the person who aspires to work well as an administrator is confidence. Those who want to lead should be very sure of themselves and their ambitions. The leader also need to be capable in handling the complex and greatly disputed matters of the issues. Leaders that are ostensible endeavor to spread themselves across the issues. The leaders should be able to get the support of the people and gain their confidence through their strength of character and propriety of actions.
These do not necessarily alter the type of onus which rests on the shoulders of the administrators involved with public policy. But, it needs to be reckoned that the leaders and the people involved need to show utmost skill in management and should leave no stone unturned in carrying out their programs in spite of any impediments which may impede the process of work. The NSLP is an apt example of the complexities involved in the functioning of such programs. Much of the success of such public policy depends on the competence of the leaders who show the way to others involved in such procedures. Enough importance needs to be given to the respective tasks, performances and plans which in coordination with one another can finally take the shape of a well-assembled program. The importance of coalitions cannot be undermined and the respective groups should come up with best possible efforts to ensure the success. It is the role of the leader to ascertain the works of the groups. Thus, by differentiating the specific domain of responsibility, it would be possible to sum up the entire procedure into a fruitful program.
The article by Heclo inspires a person to attain the required strengths and skills for treading on the path of providing successful leadership to such programs which aim at serving the people of the land. It makes a person’s notion about public policy and administration get transformed totally as one gets to understand the various facets which are intertwined with the work concerned. The amount of work and skill requires a lot of commitment and administrative skills and going through the description one ponders about the various minute details and intricacies which are associated with the programs which seem simplistic from a holistic objective perspective. The comprehensive piece makes one realize the importance of the work and inspires the individual to toil hard to think over the skills one possesses and the ones which one requires to work on for attaining success in the field of public policy and administration.
Such work is in no way comparable to other jobs as a person who is involved in such programs is directly serving the people of the state and that requires a lot of care and capability. Thus, in the chapter, Heclo, successfully describes the tenets and regulations of such work and a close introspection of the NSLP gives an individual a perfect understanding of the matter in question. It has to be understood that politics and administration is never the same. A decision which is good for administering such a program might actually be considered an incompetent political decision. Hence, the individual needs to understand the priority and set the goals accordingly. The influence of political interests on such policy making needs to be controlled if an unbiased and proper policy is the aimed for by the administrator. A policy which might seem viable might come across as not so useful on the part of the people. In such cases, it becomes very complex as the policy could have a direct influence on the electorate. Thus, one of the foremost priorities of a public policy administrator would be to nullify the clash of interest between policy making and politics so that the best program can be undertaken by the commitment and cooperation of the parties in the coalitions.
Thus, the case in context and Helco’s writing makes the situation clear as crystal to the avid reader and inspires one to embark upon the journey of public welfare through careful scrutiny of one’s skills and responsibilities which would aid in the process of providing leadership to the programs. Public policy making and carrying out the procedures needs a lot of perfection and planning and the optimum competence of the authority can only ensure the success of any policy’s proper implementation.
References
Stillman, Richard. (Ed.). (2009). Public Administration: Concepts and Cases (9th Ed.). Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
