Unpacking the Confiict 609“Why
Should
I Care?”
Social Security and Medicare may seem like things you don’t have to worry about for
at least 40 years. However, 7.65 percent of every dollar you earn goes to pay for these
programs. Also, given changes that will almost certainly be made to these programs in
the next few years, it is important to understand what is at stake. Education policy is
more obviously important for your life. While state and local politics are more central
for shaping education policy, federal programs support both higher education and
K–12 schools.Unpacking the Conflict
The varying successes and failures of efforts to reform Social Security and health care
reveal a great deal about the role of key players in the policy-making process. The
interaction between the president and Congress is central to both stories. With Social
Security reform, the president initiated a serious reform agenda, but Congress killed
the proposal by failing to act. With health care reform, Congress and the president
worked together to pass significant legislation, but now under different party
leadership, Congress is working to undo that legislation. In both instances, interest
groups played a key role. Doctors, other health care providers, insurance companies,
and drug companies largely supported health care reform, which helped Congress
pass the historic but controversial legislation. With Social Security reform, opposition
from AARP and a tepid response from the public doomed the idea of private savings
accounts, at least for now. But the last chapter on reform is yet to be written. Sooner
or later, policy makers will have to confront the massive long-term deficits in these
programs. Is this how social policy works? A contentious battle and a frustrating
outcome for most, if not all, involved?by both the left and the right. The largest teachers’ union, the National Education
Association, called for Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s resignation (he left
the administration in early 2016). Many Republicans thought that Duncan was
interfering too much in state education policy. There was more bipartisan support
behind Obama’s effort to expand programs to improve access to higher education,
such as increasing the number of Pell Grant recipients to 9.3 million and, in 2016,
launching a new online “college scorecard” to provide objective information about
college costs and quality.
States and local school districts are also experimenting with various policies
aimed at introducing more competition for public schools, including public school
choice (allowing students to choose which public school they attend) and publicly
funded vouchers for attending private schools. These approaches are strongly favored
by the secretary of education, Betsy DeVos (see the Take a Stand feature). Private
foundations have also gotten involved in education policy. The Gates Foundation
has contributed more than $2.8 billion to create smaller schools, reduce class sizes,
provide scholarships for higher education (most significantly, $1.5 billion to the United
Negro College Fund), improve the use of data, and provide access to technology.^77Full_17_APT_64431_ch16_572-613.indd 609 16/11/18 11:29 AM