Coffee and Policy Chats

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Policy Retrospective: No Child Left Behind Part I Feb 01, 2023

Show notes

This week's episode kicks off our first series on education policy. To get started, we'll be looking at No Child Left Behind, the Bush era educational policy that changed the way our students learn, our teachers taught, and the measure of success for schools and districts. There are a lot of different thoughts on what it is and what it did, but we'll get past the rumors on this controversial educational policy and get down to the facts.

Due to the size of this topic, we've broken it into 2 parts:

Part I covers:

1. What is No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

2. The History of this Educational Policy

3. Implementation of the Policy in K-12 Public Schools.

Part 2 will cover:

1. The Pros and Cons of NCLB

2. Criticisms of NCLB

3. The Impacts of NCLB

4. The legacy of NCLB and how it Continues to Impact Educational Policy

Show Notes:

a. No child left behind. ED.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml

b. Lee, A. M. I. (2021, May 4). What is no child left behind (NCLB)? Understood. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.understood.org/en/articles/no-child-left-behind-nclb-what-you-need-to-know

c. H.R.1 - no child left behind act of 2001 - congress. Congress.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/1

d. No child left behind act. Ballotpedia. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://ballotpedia.org/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act

“No Child Left Behind Bush speech”- Courtesy of Government Archives

Social Security Disability Breakdown and Exploration of the Harm of Outdated Policy Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

This week we break down the OASDI social security program and the outdated policy governing the review and adjudication of OASDI claims. Part of determining if someone is eligible for disability benefits is the "Other Work Test". No big deal under normal circumstances, except that people are being denied based on the examiners using data that is at minimum 30 years out of date. Tune in while we talk about the issue and I make some recommendations on what policy changes could be made to better serve Americans. Feel free to comment if you have any suggestions and want to join the conversation.

Sources:

National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis. DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES (DOT): PART I - CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY, APRIL 1971, AUGMENTED WITH DOT CHARACTERISTICS, AND PART II - FOURTH EDITION DICTIONARY OF DOT SCORES FOR 1970 CENSUS CATEGORIES [Computer file]. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census [producer], 197?. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1981.

Miller, Ann R., Trieman, Donald J., Cain, Pamela S. and Patricia A. Roos (eds.). 1980 WORK, JOBS, AND OCCUPATIONS: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES (Final report to the U.S. Dept. of Labor from the Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

US Dept of Labor. (n.d.). Dictionary of occupational titles dot - job descriptions. Dictionary of Occupational Titles DOT - Job Descriptions. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://occupationalinfo.org/

Rein, L. (2022, December 28). Social Security denies disability benefits based on list with jobs from 1977. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/27/social-security-job-titles-disabled-applicants-obsolete/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). A-Z index : Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/a-z-index.htm

Social Security Administration. Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2021. (2022, October). Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/

Kearney, J. R. (2006, August 1). Social Security Administration. Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysis. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v66n3/v66n3p1.html

Legislative search results | congress.gov | library of Congress. Congress.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved December 31, 2022, from https://www.congress.gov/search

Antiquated Election Legislation: The Electoral Count Act and its Reform in 2022 Jan 04, 2023

Show notes

Did you know that up until December 2022, there had been no significant changes to an 1887 law that governs how votes are certified once in congress for presidential elections? Did you also know the original law was created due to a deadlocked 1876 congress and subsequent close elections in 1880 and 1884? Find out how a vaguely written law still impacted elections until recently and what the reform of that law means for future elections.

In this episode:

Quick Bites:

Interesting 2023 Laws

Sources:

https://www.foxla.com/news/new-california-laws-2023-january-1
https://abc7chicago.com/new-illinois-laws-2023-full-list-in/12544823/

Dept of Transportation Investigation of Southwest Airlines

Sources:

https://www.axios.com/2022/12/27/transportation-department-southwest-airlines-flight-cancellations
https://twitter.com/USDOT/status/1607558478859759616
https://swamedia.com/releases/release-7e05ea1637937dc7354128bee7527c20-winterstormelliott

Main Topic Sources:

3 U.S. Code subsection 15- Counting electoral votes in congress (text)- https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Count_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Count_Reform_and_Presidential_Transition_Improvement_Act_of_2022
https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/one_pager_on_electoral_count_reform_act_of_2022.pdf
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4573/text
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/531/98/
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/u-s-senate-passes-electoral-count-reform-act/

Shut Down Averted! The Consolidated Appropriations Bill of 2023 Jan 04, 2023

Show notes

Want to get a taste for what's in the compromise budget from the U.S. Congress? Join us as we give you the tea on what was in the bill, the significance of avoiding the shut down, and what happens next.

And in our Quick Bites, find out what the big news in Nevada's Cannabis industry is and what bills were recently introduced to the floor to address the needs of indigenous people in the U.S.

Show Topics and Sources: