Public Forum: Equality, Opportunity, and Public Policy in America Fall 2016 Series
These public panels are part of the undergraduate course, "Equality, Opportunity and Public Policy in America," supported by the Public Policy Center as part of the Forkenbrock Series on Public Policy.
The undergraduate course itself is a “Big Ideas” class. It is an investigation — drawing on the insights of a number of disciplines — of a big problem, or idea, or question. For us, that big question is this: What does the government do, and why? The course focuses in particular on:
- What does the government do to ensure economic security or well-being?
- What does the government do to create or ensure equality of opportunity?
The class is organized into five units, each lasting about three weeks. The first unit establishes some of the basic elements of public policy: how we identify problems that need to be addressed, and how we decide what policies might work best. The following four units each look to a particular policy area, and the ways in which each of these address equality of opportunity and economic security, and conclude with public forums, bringing together the campus and local community to discuss major social issues facing us today.
- September 22: Education Policy in Iowa
- October 13: Work and Wages: Labor Market Policy in Iowa
- November 3: Anti-Poverty Policy in Iowa
- December 1: Health Care Policy in Iowa
Each of these panel discussions are free and open to the public (see details below), and will be held in Room N120 College of Public Health Building (CPHB) from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.