PA-597-152 Final paper report. An Inclusive Publicly Funded Education System.

Course Information 
The purpose of this course is to introduce graduate students to a set of analytical concepts for understanding incentive structures, decision-making and barriers to mutually beneficial outcomes, and to introduce innovative tools for analyzing questions relating to public policy. An integral part of this course is to spend time and effort analyzing and discussing these concepts and tools. Students will find many of the tools introduced in class and out of class, will provide them with useful exposure to adapt to their everyday management lives. The course instructor will have the class master the following: • Align their organizational values and resources with targeted strategic objectives. • Employ varied motivational arrows to appeal to a broad spectrum of stakeholders. • Build and manage diverse and often dispersed teams that can learn continuously and collaborate productively. • Improve operations continuously, measure performance and foster organizational learning; and • Transform social networks into coalitions for social change. A successful public administrator has the job of identifying, understanding, or offering solutions to issues of public concern and possibly identifying, understanding, and resolving the public concern. Examples will be taken from social justice, transportation, municipal government, state and federal government, nonprofit management, and non- governmental entities. The course will be infused with issues that take into consideration managerial ethics, diversity, inclusion, and the ways various groups (immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, suburban, urban, college-educated, non- college educated, religious, non-religious, LGBTQ+, married, single, and other “non- conforming” groups) are treated in the United States and internationally. All forms of decision-making involve dealing with the human condition. As current or budding public or private sector administrators, you will be involved with the supervision of staff. It is imperative that we question and challenge our perceptions of the people we will soon call our colleagues. Please note, this class is an elective and is designed for students with multiple expectations and needs. There will be students who are taking the class simply to complete an elective. There will, however, be students in the class who are fulfilling a final requirement: The Capstone. I will be available for individual meetings via Zoom, Google Hangout, or Blackboard Collaborate to see that each student’s expectations are met. 
Objectives PA 597 builds on and applies the analytical methodology taught in PA 580 (Policy Evaluation) and PA 581 (Policy Design); as well as, PA 570 Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The expectation is by the end of the course students will recognize the importance of leadership and how to exercise decision-making to improve organizational design and functioning in dealing with special problems. For each in-class/out-of-class meeting, the objective for each student will be to demonstrate his or her ability to write by using the following techniques. • Problem or opportunity definition: Identify and document a client-oriented public policy or management problem or opportunity. Conduct a thorough, original assessment of the problem, goals, sub-goals, objectives, and specific quantifiable goal criteria. Your goal criteria should allow you to determine whether the extent to which the policy is successful. Goals should be outlined at the level of consideration of the government or organization that will implement them and should be within the capacity of the implementing government or organization to achieve. • Identify and develop several (usually 3-5 as a rough guide) policy alternative as solutions or options to remedy the problem. These alternatives and your projections across various goal criteria should be charted in a summary Goals/Alternatives matrix (sometimes called a Consequences Matrix). We will discuss the Consequences Matrix in class. An example will be supplied to the class. • Analyze Alternatives: Analyze several possible solutions, addressing the programmatic, fiscal, human, legal, ethical, organizational, and implementation aspects of each alternative. • Analyze & Plan Implementation: Analyze the implementation challenges and solutions that each major alternative would face to realize the policy goal. • Communicate: Present the analysis and recommendations developed in the study in an extensive written and brief oral report to the class. • Recommend: Recommend one alternative (or several if they are not mutually exclusive).