Matching Items (940)
Description
This thesis analyzes budgetary documents of the State of Arizona relating to education spending as well as East Valley school districts to examine the extent of reductions in state funding for K-12 education since the beginning of the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Previous research has found that Arizona ranks in the very bottom tier of states in education spending. Moreover, Arizona has cut per-pupil spending by a higher percentage than forty-seven other states. To assess the effects of these cuts, I determine both their magnitude in the aggregate as well as their significance to individual school districts. In the first chapter, I explain the school finance formula to provide a foundation for my analysis, scrutinize the last nine budgets of the Arizona Department of Education to measure annual changes in funding, chronicle the inflation-funding lawsuit to gauge the quantity of funds withheld, rather than cut, from schools, and sum the value of reduced and suspended funding to discover the total cost of these decisions. In the second chapter, I compile data from the budgets of East Valley school districts covering the last eight recorded years to discern and compare annual changes in revenue from the state, aggregate teacher salaries, and the number of teachers employed. Looking ahead, the conclusion discusses public opinion on education funding and the enacted budget for the coming fiscal year, FY 2016. In conjunction, these sections convey both a comprehensive history of the decisions made by our public officials that have affected public education in Arizona and an analysis of the consequences of those decisions.
ContributorsStumpf, Austin Robert (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Jones, Ruth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
A 1969 report identified South Phoenix as a community that simply needed to "strengthen residential identity" (City of Phoenix), but the decades of blight and decline that followed led to the eventual adoption of the South Phoenix Village Redevelopment Area Plan in 1989. The plan recognized that twelve block area five miles southeast of the heart of Phoenix needed comprehensive revitalization. Many of the programs implemented by the City over the 20 years have been successful, but the plan has not been reevaluated in more than a decade. This research seeks to compile information as a proxy for an update on the current state of South Phoenix Village with a goal of ascertaining whether a comprehensive plan continues to be the best revitalization tool for the neighborhood. Using census tract-level data, housing, social, and economic characteristics were analyzed in an effort to identify the barriers to success that South Phoenix faces as the area continues to be rehabilitated. Some issues that have been rampant in the 1980s continues to plague the area, but others seem to have been mitigated. Following analysis of the data in the context of residential stability and neighborhood health, conclusions concerning the advantages and limitations of the comprehensive plan approach for South Phoenix Village were drawn, and recommendations for future initiatives in the area were made.
ContributorsAagard, Sarah (Author) / Dantico, Marilyn (Thesis director) / Lewis, Paul (Committee member) / Mack, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05
Description
We seek a comprehensive measurement for the economic prosperity of persons with disabilities. We survey the current literature and identify the major economic indicators used to describe the socioeconomic standing of persons with disabilities. We then develop a methodology for constructing a statistically valid composite index of these indicators, and build this index using data from the 2014 American Community Survey. Finally, we provide context for further use and development of the index and describe an example application of the index in practice.
ContributorsTheisen, Ryan (Co-author) / Helms, Tyler (Co-author) / Lewis, Paul (Thesis director) / Reiser, Mark (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Local government is an area of politics that is often put on the back burner by citizens. As compared to national government, participation at the local level is dismal. Participation in governments includes (but is not limited to) voting, attending public meetings, working with neighbors, and having baseline knowledge of current events in local government. This disinterest is particularly concerning with young voters. This thesis seeks to provide possible remedies for local governments to increase "millennial" participation and knowledge of the local government process. This project serves as a pilot study and draws upon interviews from sixty young people (ages 18-30) regarding their involvement in Arizona local government. These interviews determined their level of interest, knowledge, and participation in their local government. I used my findings to create a prescriptive approach for local government officials to increase the participation of young people in local government.
ContributorsDick, Morgan Alette (Author) / Lewis, Paul (Thesis director) / Steen, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Homelessness is one of the most visible and tragic problems facing Phoenix today. As Tucson cut its homelessness count nearly in half over the past six years, Phoenix only saw a reduction of 25%. The question remains: what is the best solution for Phoenix to reduce and eventually eliminate homelessness? This paper examined costs and benefits as well as examples in other cities and states of Housing First solutions' effectiveness at reducing the number of people suffering from homelessness. It was found that Housing First solutions, namely Permanent Supportive Housing and Rapid Re-Housing, would be highly effective in combating the homelessness experienced by those in the Phoenix area.
ContributorsGhali, Zakary Hawkes (Author) / Lewis, Paul (Thesis director) / Kilman, Margaret (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Campaign finance regulation has drastically changed since the founding of the Republic. Originally, few laws regulated how much could be contributed to political campaigns and who could make contributions. One by one, Congress passed laws to limit the possibility of corruption, for example by banning the solicitation of federal workers and banning contributions from corporations. As the United States moved into the 20th Century, regulations became more robust with more accountability. The modern structure of campaign finance regulation was established in the 1970's with legislation like the Federal Election Campaign Act and with Supreme Court rulings like in Buckley v. Valeo. Since then, the Court has moved increasingly to strike down campaign finance laws they see as limiting to First Amendment free speech. However, Arizona is one of a handful of states that established a system of publicly financed campaigns at the state-wide and legislative level. Passed in 1998, Proposition 200 attempted to limit the influence of money politics. For my research I hypothesized that a public financing system like the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) would lead to Democrats running with public funds more than Republicans, women running clean more than men, and rural candidates running clean more than urban ones, and that Democrats, women, and rural candidates would win in higher proportions than than if they ran a traditional campaign. After compiling data from the CCEC and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, I found that Democrats do run with public funds in statistically higher proportions than Republicans, but when they do they lose in higher proportions than Democrats who run traditionally. Female candidates only ran at a statistically higher proportion from 2002 to 2008, after which the difference was not statistically significant. For all year ranges women who ran with public money lost in higher proportions than women who ran traditionally. Similarly, rural candidates only ran at a statistically higher proportion from 2002 to 2008. However, they only lost at higher proportions from 2002 to 2008 instead of the whole range like with women and Democratic candidates.
ContributorsMarshall, Austin Tyler (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Jones, Ruth (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This thesis concerns the adoption of health information technology in the medical sector, specifically electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs have been seen as a great benefit to the healthcare system and will improve the quality of patient care. The federal government, has seen the benefit EHRs can offer, has been advocating the use and adoption of EHR for nearly a decade now. They have created policies that guide medical providers on how to implement EHRs. However, this thesis concerns the attitudes medical providers in Phoenix have towards government implementation. By interviewing these individuals and cross-referencing their answers with the literature this thesis wants to discover the pitfalls of federal government policy toward EHR implementation and EHR implementation in general. What this thesis found was that there are pitfalls that the federal government has failed to address including loss of provider productivity, lack of interoperability, and workflow improvement. However, the providers do say there is still a place for government to be involved in the implementation of EHR.
ContributorsKaldawi, Nicholas Emad (Author) / Lewis, Paul (Thesis director) / Cortese, Denis (Committee member) / Jones, Ruth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
This publication addresses the development of civic engagement programs in the past few decades. While successful in increasing what was perceived as a serious lack of civic engagement among youth, the movement has failed to address a key aspect of civic engagement: political engagement. Although trends have shown that the youth are much more interested in alternative forms of engagement, it is important for the success of democracy and sustaining political structures that the youth are given tools to become engaged in traditional forms of government. This paper, by analyzing data from various academic papers, will look into successful policy initiatives to increase political engagement at universities. Furthermore, the paper will look into current programs at Arizona State University (ASU) based on a criterion created from the academic resources to gauge ASU's standings. The paper will conclude with a proposal for a future ASU program. The program will be an expansion of the current ASU Experience course required of freshmen to implement a political engagement preparatory curriculum.
ContributorsJeong, Yijee (Author) / Woodall, Gina (Thesis director) / Simhony, Avital (Committee member) / Jones, Ruth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
This thesis explores a method of how political information could be distributed to the public and asks the question, what is the best way to provide voters with all of the information they need to cast an informed vote? It involved the creation of a website, www.azleglive.info, which republishes state legislative data in interactive and visually condensed formats and asked users to compare it to the existing Arizona State Legislature website on the metrics of depth of information, usability, and clarity. It also asked what resources users would utilize in order to cast a vote in the next election. Ultimately, the majority of users determined that the new website added needed usability and clarity to available legislative information, but that both websites would be useful when voting. In conclusion, the responsibility of disseminating useful information to voters is most likely to be effective when distributed among a variety of sources.
ContributorsJosephson, Zachary (Co-author) / Umaretiya, Amy (Co-author) / Jones, Ruth (Thesis director) / Woodall, Gina (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
I was interested to see if there were any statistically significant differences in political ideology between Master's of Accountancy students (MACC) and Master's of Taxation students (MTax) at Arizona State University. I hypothesized that the MACC students would tend to be more liberal or less conservative than the MTax students, while the MTax students would tend to be more conservative or less liberal than the MACC students. Scholars have found ways that conservatives and liberals differ, including differences in personality traits of conscientiousness and openness, as well as the types of careers they are drawn to. Scholars have also performed personality tests on accountants, accounting students, and accounting faculty to show how they differ. I distributed a voluntary online survey to students to discern their political beliefs. Most of the questions I asked did not reveal any statistically significant differences between students from the two programs, but the questions that did reveal some statistically significant differences showed that MACC students were more likely to be liberal or less conservative on certain issues, while the opposite was true for the MTax students. The statistically significant differences tended to appear for questions related to social policy rather than economic policy. This finding supports previous studies that show how social policy tends to be more divisive than economic policy.
ContributorsAnderson, Brett Patrick (Author) / Lewis, Paul (Thesis director) / Lowe, D. Jordan (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12