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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Regional Planning

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Nesse, Katherine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Edwards, Mary M.
• Miraftab, Faranak
• Wilson, Bev
• Alexander, S. Kern

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

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Katherine Nesse

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/30897