How Do We Know What Their Policies Are?

One of the things that learned when I was introduced to public policy was that there is a big difference between political ideology, politics, and actual policies. My point of view is very simplistic but it helps me understand what candidates actually want to do beyond all of the bluster.

While I have made my political point of view clear on the national level, it becomes a lot more policy oriented at the state and local level since there is a much more direct connection between the two. I view political ideology as the philosophical point of view and that it can be overarching (I believe in small government) to smaller (The government has no right to regulate our guns). These are our core theories about how the world should work and how we want to see the world changed in a way that we consider "better". Politics are really more of a strategy of how to get votes and seem to get less and less away from substance and closer to theater. If you've ever worked in an office where there are a lot of politics you experiences are pretty transferable to what we see on TV. There are a lot of favors, score keeping on respect or disrespect, and general bluster for the sake of showmanship. You may have seen Mike Huckabee (one of my favorite politicians and no I'm not kidding) make a fiery speech at the RNC and then turn around on the Daily Show and talk about how all the piss and vinegar thrown at community organizers was just about "exciting the base". It's not that republicans hate community organizers, they probably love them and rely on them heavily to implement their programs, but it's that when they say they hate community organizers, it makes very specific segments of our population excited and vote for McCain.

I should say that despite how it appears, the vast majority of politicians that I've met and worked with (granted this is at the gubernatorial level) genuinely care about making the world a better place and I imagine that they die regretting all of the things that they have to do to get elected.

Policies are the actual strategies that will be employed to put the theory into play. Its easy to use a sports metaphor and think of the policies as a playbook and the politician the coach. When they talk about executive experience this is the core of why that discussion is so important. As a governor, mayor, president, dictator, etc you have an opportunity to put choose what plays you think will solve the problem. As opposed to a senator or a congresswoman who basically just funds stuff. There is certainly decision making but there is generally little impact and seemingly no accountability. If you take a governor who has been in office for 2 years and a senator who has been in office for 2 years, the governor is generally going to have made a lot more plays and been held directly responsible for when those plays fail.

So, I thought I would dissect a bit of policy for you! Eduwonk.com, an education think tank in DC, which is run by a friend of a friend, did a mccain vs. obama run down of their policies. The original post is here:

http://www.eduwonk.com/2008/09/obama-vs-mccain.html

So let me go through them and give you a sense of what they want to do.

From eduwonk:

OBAMA proposes, in addition to making large investments in early childhood education, college affordability, and teaching quality improvements for high-need students, substantial increases for public schools in extended learning time and quality after-school programs, effective use of technology, improved middle and high schools, and drop-out prevention programs.

My comments: Obama's policy here is basically all politics. Why, he just talks about throwing money as something without saying what strategies he would use. Increasing federal funding without any specific policy is basically just political appeasement. He uses some buzz words - extended learning time which is basically afterschool - (a hallmark of politics) without actually talking about how he would actually use afterschool time is basically pandering to a specific group of voters. (FYI, we in the afterschool world are a small but powerful force! and need a lot of pandering to secure our votes).

MCCAIN has proposed an increase of just under one percent of the federal education budget. Nearly all of that would go to states that expand online education and help low-income students “pay for online tutors or enroll in virtual schools.” The remaining $7 million would expand the school voucher program in Washington D.C. He has also proposed reallocating $500 million of existing federal funds to “build new virtual schools and support the development of online course offerings.”

McCain is a little bit better. Don't be fooled by his use of numbers. Just using numbers is an attempt to look smart. Like Obama, he uses key words, in this case "online education" without talking about how he would do that. He tries to sound especially smart here by doing some multiplication (Less than 1% of the federal education budget = X -$7 million dollars). Notice that the answer to this one is "Not enough information given".

Personal rant on top of soap box: THIS MY FRIENDS IS WHY MATH LITERACY IS IMPORTANT SO THAT POLITICIANS, not matter what their stripe, CAN STOP USING MATH TO FOOL US!!!

Sorry, I hate when people try to use math and words that only mean things to insiders (extended learning time). I am very guilty of it and just as an FYI, generally use it to sound smart.

BUT McCain actually gives us a bit of policy. Vouchers are a policy and are when you take tax dollars and give them to families to spend only on schools. So they can be a tax rebate which can only be spent on school tuition or an actual check that you use to pay tuition at a school.

Here's how a real policy statement would read:
Obama proposes to reauthorize the federal head start bill, offer grants to state to fund innovative college tuition reduction plans, and create an office of alternative teaching certification to create a universal system of teacher certification.

McCain propose to provide infrastructure block grants to states to secure broadband access for all citizens so that they can access online tutors. He will also mandate that the all federal agencies must used only education strategies that have can demonstrate their effectiveness using actual, honest to goodness proof.

The most agrivating thing is that the candidates hardely talk about education but that's because very few people are going to use education policy as a litmus test for the candidates. So while John McCain may want to dismantle the Federal Department of Education and Obama may want to pay for kids to get credit for their science classes in Museums (which would be awesome), the next presidency is going to be about making do with no money. So maybe dismantling the DOE would be a cost saving measure?