Public Policy Commons^™

Ebola: A Crisis In Global Health Leadership, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

At the core of the present Ebola crisis in West Africa is a lack of global health leadership. WHO should be the global health leader, following its constitutional charge, yet it is significantly under-resourced, having a direct effect on its rapid response capacity. The Organization's response to this crisis has been constantly behind, from low funding appeals to its delay in declaring this outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern under the binding International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). The IHR themselves have proven insufficient, as countries have failed to cooperate in building the public health capacities that …

Cpaf Updates Vol. 15 Issue No. 10-11, Joanne V. Alvarez, Cristeta A. Foronda, Stella Concepcion R. Britanico, Angelica C. Javier, Guinevere T. Madlangbayan, Blanquita R. Pantoja, Stoix Nebin S. Pascua, Francisca O. Tan

CPAf Updates

No abstract provided.

Connor Hooper - Chicago Public Housing Demolitions And Individual Sense Of Political Belonging, Connor Hooper

Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program 2014

Brian Jacob and other scholars have pointed out how public housing in inner city areas has affected labor supply, student achievement, and a sense of belonging. However, little research has been conducted on how such particular public housing developments have shaped political orientations among low-income residents. The purpose of this research is to understand whether or not the individuals’ experiences with public housing demolitions across Chicago have affected voting participation, civic engagement, and political interest and efficacy among African-Americans who in the past have lived or currently live in Chicago public housing. Over 35 Chicago public housing residents who were …

Getches Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Fall 2014, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

Ddasaccident804, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Deminer investigated the mound by detector, than removed it up to the original surface of the ground. During checking the hard surface by detector the deminer detected a subsurface signal. During the excavation of the second layer the sudden detonation of mine occurred.

Development Discourse And Practice: Alternatives And New Directions From Postcolonial Perspectives, Paul Donnelly, Banu Ozkazanc-Pan

Books/Book Chapters

Development and aid programs, such as those aimed at promoting economic growth and prosperity in ‘Third World’ nations and transition economies, often arise out of Western and neo-liberal policy ideologies and practices. These programs may, in some cases, provide useful guidelines for restructuring institutional structures and governance mechanisms in nations that have long struggled with poverty, economic instability, health crises, and social and political turmoil. However, a growing number of critical voices are raising concerns over the guiding assumptions and inclusiveness of these policies and programs in their aims to promote economic development and social well-being in non-Western nations. We …

Massachusetts On The Move: The Intersection Of Talent, Transportation, And Housing, Richard Boyajian, Juleen Freitas, David Mahoney, Karen Ng, Robert Woods

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR) collaborated with a team from the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) from the University of Massachusetts Boston to interview business leaders to explore the important intersection of talent, transportation, and housing on the state’s economy. The ELP Team obtained the insights of 15 key business leaders, industry experts as well as public policy organizations on these important issues and their impact across the Commonwealth. This research seeks to capture the views of stakeholders throughout Massachusetts. The ELP Team surveyed the landscape by reviewing trends and current research on these policy issues.

Is Burglary A Violent Crime? An Empirical Investigation Of Classifying Burglary As A Violent Felony And Its Statutory Implications, Phillip Kopp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Under the common law, burglary is defined as a crime committed against the property of another, and is listed as a property offense for purposes of statistical description by the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). However, burglary is prosecuted and sentenced as a violent crime under habitual offender laws at the federal level, and can be regarded as violent in state law, depending on varied circumstances. Using a mixed methods approach, the current study compared state and federal burglary and habitual offender statutes to an empirical description of the offense. First, a comprehensive content …

An Analysis Of Political And Legal Debates Concerning Medicaid Expansion In Virginia, Rick Mayes, Benjamin Paul

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court’s historic June 2012 ruling regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius set the stage for a massive federalism battle over Medicaid expansion in the United States. The original language of the Act was intended to nationalize Medicaid by having every state expand their program’s eligibility to all individuals up to 138% of the federal poverty level. This would have significantly reshaped Medicaid, a joint federal-state health insurance program, into a universal entitlement for all low-income citizens. Currently, Medicaid eligibility varies dramatically from state to state. The Court held that the …

Dwight Eisenhower, The Warrior, & John Kennedy, The Cold Warrior: Foreign Policy Under Two Presidents, Andrew C. Nosti

Student Publications

This paper presents a comparison between President Eisenhower and President Kennedy's foreign affairs policies, specifically regarding the Cold War, by examining the presidents' interactions with four distinct Cold War regions.

Changing Times: Population Movements And Education Quality, Nicholas J. Cordonier

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research aims to examine the relationship between population change and college readiness in Nebraska. Nebraska as well as three counties: Box Butte County, Lancaster County, and Scotts Bluff County were used as locations for this study. The process for analyzing the relationship is done in three parts. First, data was collected from the Nebraska Department of Education about high school variables such as teacher characteristics and attendance rates. Next, U.S. Census Bureau data was used to create socio-economic standards for the various locations. Finally, the high school variables and socio-economic standards were compared to several college readiness indicators to …

From Intent To Effect: Richmond, Virginia, And The Protracted Struggle For Voting Rights, 1965–1977, Julian Maxwell Hayter

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Twelve years after the ratification of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [VRA], Richmond, Virginia elected a historic majority black city council. The 5-4 majority quickly appointed an African American lawyer named Henry Marsh, III to the mayoralty. Marsh, a nationally celebrated civil rights litigator, was not only the city’s first black mayor, but the council election of 1977 was also Richmond’s first since 1970. In 1972, a federal district court used the VRA’s preclearance clause in Section 5 to place a moratorium on council contests. This moratorium lasted until the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice determined whether …

The Effect Of The Syrian Crisis On Jordanian Internal Security, Andrew E. Szparaga

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Jordan has a refugee crisis; between 620,000 and 1.3 million Syrian refugees are seeking refuge in Jordan. This report aims to answer which aspect of Jordanian security the refugees have the biggest effect on. It also aims to answer whether the refugees based in camps, like Za’atari, or those integrated into the Jordanian communities are more threatening to internal security. Because many argue that Syrian refugees have a negative effect on the economic, environmental, military, political, and social securities of Jordan, many believe that they might pose a possible threat to the country’s internal security factors. The Syrian refugees have …

Former Mentors' Perceptions Of The Faith-Based Approach To Reducing Recidivism Implemented By The Marinette-Menominee Jail Outreach, Inc., James Langteau

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study was to examine the impact of a faith-based approach to reduce recidivism. The theoretical frameworks guiding this study included the belief system and self-efficacy theories. Participants consisted of a convenience sample of 21 former mentors of the Marinette-Menominee Jail Outreach. The setting was a Christian non-profit organization serving the Marinette and Menominee County Jails located in rural northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Semistructured interviews, surveys, and a focus group provided data to illuminate common themes. Data analysis included highlighting significant statements from volunteer mentors who engaged offenders to effect …

Mainecare Health Homes Enrollment In The First Year Of Implementation, Kimberley S. Fox Mpa, Carolyn E. Gray Mph, Katherine Rosingana

Population Health & Health Policy

The MaineCare Health Homes Initiative is designed to improve care coordination for MaineCare members with complex chronic medical conditions. The program is being implemented in two stages: Health Homes (HH), which began in January 2013, focuses on members with chronic health conditions. Behavioral Health Homes (BHH), which began in April 2014, is designed to meet the needs of people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) or Serious Emotional Disturbances (SED).

The HH first stage builds off the State’s existing multi-payer Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Pilot project and Medicare Advanced Primary Care Practice (MAPCP) Demonstration by providing addon payments to qualifying …

The Development And Design Of The Common Core State Standards For Mathematics, Jason Zimba

New England Journal of Public Policy

As one of the lead writers of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, I begin by explaining what the standards are, what they are not, and how they were developed. Then I detail some ways in which the standards differ from previous state standards. Finally, I describe some of the developments I have seen in the implementation of the standards and the key developments I would like to see in the future.

Sustaining The Teaching Profession, Ronald Thorpe

New England Journal of Public Policy

Within the United States and across nations, there seems to be consensus that teacher quality is the most important school-based variable in determining how well a child learns. While such an observation hardly sounds like headline news, it is a milestone in the development of teaching as a profession. It suggests where investments should be made if people really are serious about student learning. It also explains why policymakers and the public should care about what it means to be an effective teacher and what it will take to create and sustain a teaching workforce defined by accomplished practice. Teachers, …

What Can Pisa Tell Us About U.S. Education Policy?, Linda Darling-Hammond

New England Journal of Public Policy

Despite years of attention to “reform” in the United States, overall achievement on international assessments such as PISA has not improved during the period from 2000 to 2012. Reforms focused on high-stakes testing attached to sanctions, expansions of charter schools, and a market-based approach to teaching have been unsuccessful in changing outcomes. Meanwhile, growing childhood poverty, along with increasing segregation, income inequality, and disparities in school spending, have expanded the opportunity gap. Lessons from other nations and successful states indicate that systematic government investments in high-need schools along with capacity-building that improves the knowledge and skills of educators and the …

The National Commission On Education Excellence And Equity: Hypotheses About Movement Building, Christopher Edley Jr.

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 2013, the congressionally chartered national Commission on Education Equity and Excellence issued unanimous recommendations for P–12 policy changes at the federal, state, and local levels. This remarkably broad consensus, with unusual pragmatism and concreteness, is comprehensive in its scope and predominantly research based. As a clarion call and reform strategy, the commission report, For Each and Every Child, is a successor to A Nation at Risk (1983); the commission’s grand if not grandiose intention was to provide a framework for the next decade or more of nationwide policy struggle. This article, after briefly summarizing the recommendations, focuses on …

Transforming Public Education: The Need For An Educational Justice Movement, Mark R. Warren

New England Journal of Public Policy

Nearly fifteen years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, the failures of our educational system with regard to low-income children of color remain profound. Traditional reform efforts have sought improvements solely within the confines of the school system, failing to realize how deeply educational failure is part of and linked to broader structures of poverty and racism. A social movement that creates political and cultural change is necessary to transform the racial inequities in public education itself and to connect this transformational effort to a larger movement to combat poverty and racism. The seeds of a new educational …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

On December 3, 2013, when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, the ranking of the United States as number 27 on the global scoreboard elicited little surprise among teachers, educational professionals, academics, and educational policymakers. The usual platitudes were trotted out—no mention that the United States’ standing was getting any worse, just which other countries were passing us by. We were stuck at a perennial average.

The results are in a sense a metaphor of the slow decline of the United State since the 1970s from a position of …

International Education Comparisons: How American Education Reform Is The New Status Quo, Randi Weingarten

New England Journal of Public Policy

The United States participates in international studies comparing school systems across the world. Reformers have largely ignored the lessons from these studies about what works best to educate children, and a strategy of test-based accountability has become the new status quo. This article analyzes the failed policy ideas reformers keep pushing on our schools that have been shown across the globe to be unsuccessful in the areas of school choice and competition, teacher quality and evaluation, an engaging curriculum, and equity. Research examines what top performing countries do to help students succeed, as well as what works in districts across …

Poverty, Educational Achievement, And The Role Of The Courts, Michael A. Rebell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The large and growing proportion of U.S. students who come from poverty backgrounds explains this country’s relatively low performance on international achievement tests. These students need a broad range of comprehensive educational services if they are to have a meaningful opportunity to succeed in school. These opportunities include not only adequate resources for basic K–12 educational services but also parent engagement, health and other services, and additional early education, after-school, and summer programs. In most states, the schools attended by students with the greatest needs tend to receive the fewest resources because of the inequitable systems most states use for …

Getting To The Core And Evolving The Education Reform Movement To A System Of Continuous Improvement, Fernando M. Reimers, Eleonora Villegas-Reimers

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article places the most recent study of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) in historical perspective, reviewing the role of international comparisons in efforts to build public education systems as key institutions of democratic societies. It discusses the findings for the United States, examining differences with other participating countries. It also looks at a paradox. Despite the high priority education has received in the United States in the past two decades, the country underperformed in a number of indicators in the PISA in comparison with many other countries participating in the study. The authors explain the findings as the …

Interview With Andreas Schleicher, Padraig O'Malley, Andreas Schleicher

New England Journal of Public Policy

This interview took place on March 17, 2014, in Washington, DC, with Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Schleicher is responsible for the Directorate of Education and Skills’ research, analysis, and publication of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), and the development and analysis of benchmarks on the performance of education systems. The OECD reports on PISA, PIAAC, and TALIS were released between December 3, …

School Reform In Canada And Florida: A Study Of Contrast, Catherine S. Boehme

New England Journal of Public Policy

Alberta and Florida have instituted school reform initiatives over the past fifteen years in an effort to improve the quality of their schools. Alberta has focused on systemic improvement by engaging the community in educational needs assessment, raising the high standards of teacher preparation, and improving effective instructional practices through professional development. Florida’s efforts have concentrated on holding students, teachers, schools, and districts accountable for high-stakes testing results by increasing the number and rigor of required assessments and increasing the negative consequences for low achievement scores. The 2012 PISA scores reveal that Alberta’s students are maintaining their high rankings relative …

Massachusetts Schooling Matters: Good News, Contributing Factors, Challenges, Persistent Problems, Kathleen J. Skinner, Paul Toner

New England Journal of Public Policy

Massachusetts public schools have performed at the highest levels on national and international benchmarked reading, mathematics, and science assessments. The Commonwealth’s population demographics related to educational attainment, employment, and family income coupled with factors within the control of the state, districts, or schools, such as highly qualified and unionized teachers, average school-district size, defined time on learning, universal health care coverage for all children, state funding for pre-K–12 schooling, curriculum articulation through statewide standards, and high participation in college admissions exams, have contributed to academic success. Massachusetts schools, however, still face challenges in narrowing existing achievement gaps, reducing the emphasis …

The Ebola Epidemic: A Public Health Emergency Of International Concern, Lawrence O. Gostin, Daniel Lucey, Alexandra Phelan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On August 8, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan declared the West Africa Ebola crises a “public health emergency of international concern,” triggering powers under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR).

The most affected West African states have attempted classic public health measures with varied success, including quarantine and isolation, social distancing, risk communication, and travel restrictions. These have involved a trade off between population health and human rights; sometimes to the disadvantage of both. At the same time, the countries’ health systems and human resources are fragile, impeding an effective response.

Beyond the public health and …

The Historic Role Of Boards Of Health In Local Innovation: New York City’S Soda Portion Case, Lawrence O. Gostin, Belinda H. Reeve, Marice Ashe

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Childhood and adult obesity pose major risks for cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, with the poor and racial minorities suffering from disproportionately high burdens of obesity and chronic disease. With current policies failing, cities and states have moved forward with creative prevention measures–-with boards of health driving policy innovation in many local jurisdictions. The New York City Board of Board of Health’s (NYCBH) soda portion limit pushed the boundaries of innovation, but was struck down on June 26, 2014 by New York State’s highest court, which held that the Board trespassed on the City Council’s authority.

The Court’s decision ignored …

Virus Sharing, Genetic Sequencing, And Global Health Security, Lawrence O. Gostin, Alexandra Phelan, Michael A. Stoto, John D. Kraemer, K. Srinath Reddy

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The WHO’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework was a milestone global agreement designed to promote the international sharing of biological samples to develop vaccines, while that ensuring poorer countries would have access to those vaccines. Since the PIP Framework was negotiated, scientists have developed the capacity to use genetic sequencing data (GSD) to develop synthetic viruses rapidly for product development of life-saving technologies in a time-sensitive global emergency—threatening to unravel the Framework. Access to GSD may also have major implications for biosecurity, biosafety, and intellectual property (IP).

By rendering the physical transfer of viruses antiquated, GSD may also undermine the …