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Engagement in Educational Policymaking  \nPermalink  \n[https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c2346tq](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c2346tq)  \nJournal  \nBerkeley Review of Education, 6(2)  \nISSN  \n1947-5578  \nAuthor  \nPiazza, Peter  \nPublication Date  \n2017-01-01  \nPeer reviewed  \n[eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library  \nUniversity of California  \nAvailable online at [http://escholarship.org/uc/ucbgse_bre](http://escholarship.org/uc/ucbgse_bre)  \nThe Ballot Initiative and Other Modern Threats to Public Engagement in Educational Policymaking  \nPeter Piazza 1  \nBoston College Lynch School of Education  \nAbstract  \nThis paper situates recent changes in educational policymaking, especially the increased use of the ballot initiative, within larger historical trends related to democratic engagement in policy development. I conduct an integrative literature review that combines conceptual analyses with findings from empirical investigations into new policymaking tactics and their influence on policy development. Specifically, I explore (a) the discourses justifying policy priorities over time, and (b) the role of democratic engagement in dominant modes of policymaking. I demonstrate that various sources combine to tell a troubling story about the longstanding exclusion of the public from policymaking regarding its public schools. Further, I argue that, perhaps paradoxically, the increased use of the ballot initiative only exacerbates this trend. Ultimately, I use results from thereviewed research to ask if there is a better way to make policy, one that aspires to higher democratic ideals.  \nKeywords: education policy, literature review, discourse analysis, democratic engagement  \nThe educational policymaking arena has changed dramatically in recent years. A controversial and ever-expanding menu of policy proposals is now debated and developed by an increasingly diverse array of high-powered political actors (Buras, 2011; McGuinn, 2012a, 2012b) . Change is perhaps most visible within state legislatures across the country, where new political actors using new political tactics have had a major influence on the policies that have been enacted. One set of actors new to state-level policymaking is a loosely federated group of nonprofit advocacy organizations that has enjoyed remarkable success in recent years (McGuinn, 2012a; Sawchuk, 2012b, 2012c) . Many of these organizations are non-governmental actors, often located far from the states and communities whose policies they hope to influence. Fueled in part by new rules regarding political spending, these organizations have helped to drive controversial changes that aim, consistent with the neoliberal agenda, to make public education function more like private business.  \nThis article traces major discursive shifts in educational policymaking over roughly the last 50 years, starting with the social welfare era and continuing to the current era of neoliberal reform. Within this analysis, I locate research findings on a perhaps misunderstood and increasingly popular vehicle of neoliberal reform: the ballot initiative.  \n1 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Peter Piazza, Ph.D. Email: [ptpiazza@gmail.com](ptpiazza@gmail.com).  \nBerkeley Review of Education Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 173–201  \n174 Piazza  \nBecause the ballot initiative has quietly become a driver of neoliberal reform, it is important that the literature on each topic—that is, ballot initiatives and neoliberal reform—are examined together. I situate the ballot initiative in the history of educational policymaking by combining a review of existing research on ballot initiatives with an exploration of shifts in political discourse and modes of democratic engagement. Together, these sources tell a troubling story about public exclusion from educational policymaking.","cbCaihTYPW5hoQCd","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihTYPW5hoQCd","pdf",455050,"English","# Abstract\n# Changing Educational Policymaking and Public Engagement\n## Discourse Shifts and Neoliberal Reform\n## Ballot Initiatives as a Neoliberal Vehicle\n# Threats to Informed Democratic Engagement","[{\"question\":\"What central issue does the paper examine in educational policymaking?\",\"answer\":\"The paper examines how the increasing use of the ballot initiative fits within broader historical trends in democratic engagement in policy development, and how it affects public participation in policymaking for public schools.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author approach the research?\",\"answer\":\"The study uses an integrative literature review that combines conceptual analyses with findings from empirical investigations about new policymaking tactics and their influence on policy development.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper characterize ballot initiatives as a modern threat to public engagement?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that ballot initiatives contribute to the longstanding exclusion of the public from educational policymaking, and that their increased use paradoxically intensifies this trend by moving dominant decision-making farther from deliberative ideals.\"}]","The Ballot Initiative and Other Modern Threats to Public Engagement in Educational Policymaking | PDF",1792079795,76]