How do we know? Determining school district fiscal and administrative policy in rural Hispanic boomtowns in the Midwest

Nesse, Katherine

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/30897 Copy

Description

Title

How do we know? Determining school district fiscal and administrative policy in rural Hispanic boomtowns in the Midwest

Author(s)

Nesse, Katherine

Issue Date

2012-05-22T00:13:53Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Edwards, Mary M.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Edwards, Mary M.

Committee Member(s)

• Miraftab, Faranak
• Wilson, Bev
• Alexander, S. Kern

Department of Study

Urban & Regional Planning

Discipline

Regional Planning

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• public goods
• communicative planning
• government
• school districts
• Midwest
• Hispanics

Abstract

Understanding the needs and desires of a community is one of the objectives of a democratic government. This is what we are expressing when we vote for candidates or referenda. However, the voting system does not always work to accurately reveal the preferences of a community. In addition to voting, governments often try to employ other mechanisms to understand the public’s preferences. One such mechanism is communicative planning. In communicative planning, the community’s preferences are revealed not through voting but through dialog with one another. By conversing with one another, we learn about ourselves and others and are changed through the process. Ultimately, the preferences are revealed through effective arguments. Using the Midwest as a laboratory to test whether communicative planning is being employed effectively as a preference revelatory tool, I demonstrate that districts do not fully implement communicative planning to understand the new Hispanic community and Hispanics are having little direct impact on fiscal and administrative decisions. However, these results are consistent with an institutional approach to communicative planning where not only are individuals influencing the governments that surround them but those governments play a significant role in shaping the activities of individuals. Many of the reasons that a communicative process was not implemented were a result of institutional factors specific to the school district. Incorporating these institutional factors into a quantitative model would better predict the impact that community members have on fiscal and administrative changes. In addition, awareness of the institutional factors that could impact the planning process and the willingness to respond to them on the part of district administrators would help them institute a more communicative process.

Graduation Semester

2012-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/30897

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2012 Katherine Nesse

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