Dr. Wayne E. Wright Royal University of Phnom Penh

 Issue Definition and Agenda Setting stages are mostly invisible  Policy Formation and Policy Adoption are highly visible  What many people consider to be “politics”  Policies are expressed in written language  Statute, administrative rule, court decision  Many battles are fought over specific word choices  Policy formation and adoption battles are fought on two fronts  Words  Money

 Policy formation and adoption is a long and difficult process  Was intentionally made this way to prevent too many laws being made or change to quickly  Most bills introduced into the legislature never become laws at all

 Legislative Proposal  A serious recommendation for a policy change in the current or next legislative session  First step in the policy formation process  Sources  Legislators  Chief Executive (president/governor)  Administrative agencies (e.g. Department of Education)  Propose new laws to close loopholes in existing laws  Interest groups  Source other than legislators must find two legislators (House and Senate) to sponsor their bill  See Table 8.1 for examples from Minnesota

 A legislative proposal is typically written in plain language anyone can understand  Proposal must be transformed into an official bill—a proposed law—using legalistic language  Usually written by lawyers with skills in drafting legislation  Check the bill to see how it would affect other laws  Bills have names  H.B. 70 (House Bill #70)  S.B. 20 (Senate Bill #20)  No Child Left Behind Act

 Bills move through the legislature  Complex procedures  Many hurdles to overcome  Most bills “die” in one of the committees  Bills that make it usually get changed (revised and amended) many times  See Figure 8.2 (p. 201)

 Even if bill is passed by the legislature, there is still the battle for money  Funding for bills is handled by a different process  Chief executive creates a budget for the fiscal year  Legislature approves the budget  Legislature decides how much money to give to approved bills  Many don’t get any money  “Unfunded Mandates”

 Once bills that become a law are usually very generic  Rules must be written about how the law is to be interpreted and implemented  Government administrative agencies write these rules  E.g., the Department of Education write the rules for school districts to follow based on the law  Benefits  Legislators do not have expertise in education  Departments of education usually have former teachers, principals, and other education experts who understand schools and children  Allows the “experts” to decide how the law is to be implemented.  Allows flexibility and changes  Ex: Arizona rules related to Prop. 203  See Figure 8.3 and 8.4 (pp )

 Judges hear cases related to education and make decisions that change or create policies  Decisions are written and recorded in case law books  Their decisions become precedents for other judges to follow in similar cases  Judges can review a policy or law to determine if it is constitutional  Judges are not apolitical  Members of a political party  Appointed by chief executive who hopes they will support the party’s ideology  Judges have their own ideologies  But most judges are worried less about politics and more about doing a thorough job interpreting laws based on precedence and the constitution  Many educational policy questions are decided by judges

 Judges cannot choose what educational issues they want to address  Must wait for a case to be brought before the court  Case must be brought by someone (Plaintiff) who can claim that they were harmed or damaged in someway by a current (or proposed) policy.  The plaintiff must be able to name an adversary who is responsible for the harm or damage  Chief education officer, state board of education, governor, or the state  Brown v. Board of Education; Lau v. Nichols, Flores v. Arizona.  Level and type of court determines level of impact  Local courts, state courts, court of appeals, federal courts, U.S. Supreme Court  Courts leave it up administrative agencies to work out the details of implementing court decisions.

 Know the process  Follow government activity  Government publications  Professional organizations  Work with others  Set priorities  Pick your battles

 Influencing Legislatures and Agencies  Government relations  Work through professional organizations  Lobbying  Figure 8.6 (p. 225) Ways to communicate with public officials and involve them in schools  Figure 8.9 and 8.10 (p. 231) Tips for effective letters and phone calls to legislators  Be careful!  Schools leaders typically belong to a political party  Must work with leaders from different political parties  Must behave in non-partisan ways

 Education leaders have a responsibility to work to obtain the best possible policies for schools and children  Education leaders have a responsibility to be models of effective citizenship in a democracy  If education leaders avoid politics, they will become victims of politics  Allow those who know the least about education and schools (politicians) make decisions that make them worse.  Influencing policy is hard and difficult work, but is part of the job of educational leaders!

1. In Cambodia, who are the major sources of legislative proposals? 2. How do bills move through the Cambodian Legislature? 3. Who creates the administrative rules for approved bills? 4. Do the courts in Cambodia have any influence on education policy, or policy in general? 5. What are the best ways Cambodian educational leaders can influence the policy formation and adoption process?