Read: Meek & Thurmaier Ch. 5-6 and answering the question.
1) What does the case of the Texas Capital Fund tell you about the changing nature of IGR. Explain how Collins’s argument about boundary-spanning management in block grant administration, design principles for collective targeting, and state-centric networks apply.
Read: Meek and Thurmaier Ch. 7-8 and answer the following questions:
1) In what ways would new performance measures make you more accountable as a public administrator? Explain.
2) Let’s assume that you as a state administrator have to strike a balance between bureaucratic accountability, political accountability, professional accountability, and legal accountability. And while you may have legal accountability in the administration of a federal program to the federal government, you also have political accountability to the residents of your state. To what extent does one form of accountability conflict with another? What type of standards will you devise for balancing them out?
Read: O’Toole pp. 311-354 or Meek & Thurmaier Ch. 9-11 and answer the following questions on
1) Explain how events like Hurricane Katrina and/or terrorist threats to homeland security present a challenge to traditional IGR.
2) Explain how the interdependence in the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico illustrate the overall argument that Covarrubias is making about interdependence, complex social problems, and federalism.
Understanding No Child Left Behind
Read: McGuin entire book and answer the following questions:
1) What is the nature of the education policy regime before NCLB and how does NCLB effectively require a new one?
2) What role does Brown v. Board of Education play in federal education policy and how might it serve as precedent for NCLB?
