Deck 12: Public Policy in Texas

Question 1

Which ideology reflected the public policy agenda in Texas during the first decade of the twenty-first century?

A) liberal ideology
B) conservative ideology
C) Tea Party ideology
D) The agenda was dominated by the Democratic Party and its conservative public policy positions.
E) The agenda was dominated by Republicans and their liberal positions on social policy issues.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act of 2007

A) was ruled unconstitutional by the Texas Supreme Court.
B) was rejected by social conservatives.
C) required Texas schools to adopt a number of policies that would protect religious speech on campus.
D) was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
E) was vetoed by the governor and never went into effect.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A 1983 report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education was called

A) Waiting for Superman.
B) Only in America.
C) No Child Left Behind.
D) Race to the Top.
E) A Nation at Risk.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

The three main issues that have shaped education policy in Texas during the last fifty years are

A) income taxes, federal regulation, and teacher salaries.
B) labor unions, civil rights, and school district lines.
C) funding, desegregation, and educational excellence.
D) desegregation, access to the Internet, and urbanization.
E) lack of unions, infrastructure of education, and declining school enrollments.

Question 5

Under the Gilmer-Aikin Laws

A) various bureaucratic institutions were established to be responsible for public education in the state of Texas.
B) public funding for education was drastically cut because of the lackluster state economy during the 1960s.
C) the Texas school districts were subdivided to provide for more local control.
D) the Texas school districts were not affected at all by this legislation.
E) this legislation became known as the Robin Hood bill.

Question 6

Under the separate but equal doctrine in the 1920s and 1930s, the amount of money that the state of Texas spent on black students was ______ the amount spent on white students in public schools.

A) the same as
B) much higher than
C) lower than
D) rapidly catching up to
E) completely unknown relative to

Question 7

The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Edgewood ISD v. Kirby was that

A) undue reliance upon property taxes to fund public education violated the Texas Constitution.
B) the state's property tax system for financing public education did not violate the Texas Constitution.
C) the state's property tax system for financing public education was not the issue in this case; the issue was dropout rate disparity between school districts.
D) the state's dropout rate warranted federal supervision of Texas's public schools until the Texas dropout rate approached the national average.
E) the Texas Education Agency had acted unconstitutionally by barring prayer in public schools.

Question 8

In the Brown v. Board of Education case, segregated school districts were ordered to

A) double the funding for African American integrated schools.
B) desegregate their schools within the next ten years.
C) desegregate their schools "with all deliberate speed."
D) appoint a commission to study the Texas school system and make recommendations to the governor.
E) redraw school district lines to improve funding for all schools on a more equitable basis.

Question 9

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A) invalidated the state-imposed racial segregation in Texas.
B) validated the election of State Board of Education members.
C) overturned the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case of 1954.
D) was reinforced by Edgewood ISD v. Kirby.
E) validated the Texas state-imposed racial segregation in public schools.

Question 10

Which of the following statements regarding public policy in Texas is true?

A) Public policy in Texas is not affected at all by national policy.
B) Public policy in Texas is crippled by national policy, giving Texas very little control.
C) The policies of the national government influence Texas, but, for the most part, large segments of public policy, such as education, infrastructure, and legal matters, are state and local matters.
D) Public policy making is divided equally between the state and the federal government under the concept and theory of federalism.
E) Federalism makes the national government virtually irrelevant to states such as Texas.

Question 11

Which statement is true regarding public education throughout much of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century?

A) Public education was heavily subsidized by the national government.
B) Public education was handled privately and by local government.
C) Public education was almost exclusively the responsibility of federal lawmakers.
D) Public education was the sole responsibility of religious institutions.
E) Only after World War II did state and local governments support public education.

Question 12

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson in

A) Gilmer v. Aikin.
B) San Antonio v. Rodriguez.
C) Edgewood ISD v. Kirby.
D) Roe v. Wade.
E) Brown v. Board of Education.

Question 13

Ross Perot was appointed by Governor Mark White to chair a committee on education. As committee chair, he was particularly scornful of

A) high teacher salaries.
B) the cost of education per pupil.
C) the high incidence of violence in public school classrooms.
D) athletic programs.
E) low college graduation rates.

Question 14

Under the Gilmer-Aikin Laws

A) the State Board of Education was established and became the policy-making body for public education in Texas.
B) the State Board of Education was abolished for being redundant and in competition with the federal Department of Education.
C) the Religious Antidiscrimination Act was repealed.
D) the State Board of Education members were elected statewide on partisan ballots.
E) Texas instituted an income tax to fund public education.

Question 15

San Antonio v. Rodriguez dealt with the

A) achievement gap in the Texas public school system.
B) dropout rate in public schools.
C) continuing persistence of integration failure in public schools.
D) constitutionality of using property taxes to fund public schools.
E) possible misuse of lottery proceeds to fund public schools in Texas.

Question 16

In Edgewood ISD v. Kirby, the key constitutional issue was

A) whether the Brown v. Board of Education decision applied to Texas students.
B) whether the phrase "an efficient system of free public schools" included school financing.
C) de facto segregation.
D) the continuing effects of Roe v. Wade upon public education.
E) whether school prayer should be required in grades K-8.

Question 17

The legal doctrine at issue in the Plessy v. Ferguson case is the

A) separate but equal doctrine.
B) privileges and immunities clause.
C) hold and save harmless doctrine.
D) supremacy clause.
E) doctrine of eminent domain.

Question 18

Among the most important findings of the 1983 report were

A) graduation rates were improving and dropout rates were increasing.
B) dropout rates were increasing and test scores were improving.
C) test scores were declining and functional illiteracy was increasing.
D) functional illiteracy was decreasing and test scores were improving.
E) graduation rates and functional illiteracy were both increasing.

Question 19

By the late 1960s, de facto segregation

A) had been completely eliminated.
B) was still a problem in urban public schools with a large minority population.
C) had been ruled illegal and therefore was no longer an issue in public education.
D) had resulted in all federal funds being withheld from the public schools in Texas.
E) was increasing at a rapid rate throughout the state.

Question 20

The debate over public education in Texas goes back to the

A) Constitution of 1876.
B) first decade of the twenty-first century.
C) post-World War II era and the returning military service members.
D) break with Mexico.
E) beginning of the American civil rights movement.

Question 21

Federal money for Medicaid programs

A) comes to the states as a block grant without any significant restrictions.
B) is tied to the number of adults on the welfare rolls in order to reduce the cost of program redundancy.
C) is accompanied by federal rules and regulations, which states must comply with to maintain federal funding of the program.
D) is administered automatically by the federal government to avoid punishing program recipients.
E) is not tied to any state requirements or administrative procedures.

Question 22

During the 1980s, a growing number of critics alleged that welfare programs

A) had nearly eliminated poverty.
B) were helping to create a dysfunctional underclass of people who depended upon it for survival.
C) were being abused, mostly by the wealthy.
D) benefited only the middle class at the expense of the poorer class.
E) should be turned back over to private charities and religious institutions because government resources had been exhausted.

Question 23

The origins of modern welfare policy lie in

A) the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
B) President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
C) President Truman's post-World War I reforms.
D) President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs.
E) President Gerald Ford's War on Poverty.

Question 24

The most important welfare reform legislation since the New Deal was

A) Johnson's War on Poverty.
B) legislation signed by Governor Bush arguing that the existing welfare policy robbed people of their incentive to become independent.
C) the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which created block-grant funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
D) the No Child Left Behind legislation signed by President Bush to reduce the number of children left behind in poverty.
E) the health care legislation signed into law by President Obama in 2010, popularly known as National Health Care.

Question 25

Which statement is true regarding poverty in Texas?

A) Texas has a lower rate of poverty than the rest of the United States.
B) In Texas, the poverty rate among children is much lower than in the rest of the United States.
C) In Texas, the rate of poverty is equal among all ethnic groups.
D) In Texas, the poverty rate among children is much higher than in the rest of the United States.
E) Poverty in Texas closely mirrors the rest of the nation.

Question 26

In the 1960s, welfare policy in Texas reflected

A) a policy of minimizing the cost to Texas while maximizing the use of federal dollars.
B) a policy of maximizing welfare benefits paid by the state of Texas.
C) very generous state-funded benefits.
D) noncompliance with all federal welfare programs.
E) virtually unlimited state welfare expenditures.

Question 27

The percentage of Texans living in poverty is approximately

A) 5 percent.
B) 15 percent.
C) 30 percent.
D) 50 percent.
E) 75 percent.

Question 28

Welfare reforms are measured along which two dimensions?

A) the number of people receiving welfare and the crime rate
B) waste and fraud within each welfare program
C) the number of people on welfare and the success of getting people into the workforce
D) the number of welfare recipients who continued receiving welfare benefits for more than five years versus those who received benefits for a shorter period of time
E) the percent of children, versus the percent of adults, on the welfare rolls

Question 29

The ______ transformed the way in which the United States handled poverty and implemented welfare policy.

A) 1865 post-Civil War National Poverty Reconstruction Act
B) 1965 Great Society Reconstruction Act
C) 1935 Social Security Act
D) 1945 National Recovery Program Act
E) 1996 Welfare Reform

Question 30

The single most important issue confronting Texas policy makers with regard to Medicaid is

A) equity of payments across all demographic groups.
B) the lack of public support for many of the programs based on religious grounds.
C) the abuse of the program as reported by the Congressional Budget Office.
D) the cost.
E) corruption on the part of federal officials.

Question 31

Since its creation, Medicaid has

A) grown large and complex, serving a variety of special interest groups.
B) remained unchanged and true to its original intent.
C) been substantially downsized due to the general financial challenges facing the United States.
D) been absorbed by the Social Security Administration in a cost-cutting move.
E) The program was eliminated in 1996.

Question 32

The high school graduation rates in Texas are

A) the highest of any state in the nation.
B) among the highest in the nation.
C) unknown because this data is not collected.
D) improving dramatically due to the reforms of the 1980s.
E) among the lowest of all fifty states.

Question 33

Dropout rates in Texas are

A) about the same for all demographic groups.
B) highest among minorities.
C) highest among the Asian student population.
D) lowest among minorities.
E) highest among white females.

Question 34

One of the controversies arising out of the Medicaid Women's Health Program in Texas involved

A) religious restrictions imposed upon welfare recipients.
B) the program and the costs of birth control, health screenings, and family exams.
C) the funding of abortions in state clinics paid for by Texas taxpayers who were opposed to the procedure.
D) the health care for poor unwed mothers.
E) birth control measures for lesbian couples not living in poverty.

Question 35

The most persistent social problem facing Texas is

A) severe droughts.
B) poverty.
C) crime.
D) environmental degradation.
E) political corruption.

Question 36

The generally accepted standard by which poverty is measured in the United States is the

A) unemployment index.
B) the caloric intake index.
C) the index of income inequality.
D) the United Nations global poverty index.
E) the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty index.

Question 37

In 1965, Congress created the Medicaid program, a state-federal program, to

A) direct cash payments to citizens living in poverty.
B) provide welfare benefits to the general public regardless of income.
C) assist Texans with their prescription medications.
D) provide wellness checkups for all Texas children.
E) provide health care for the poor.

Question 38

The primary purpose of TANF was to

A) reduce the number of children in poverty.
B) reduce illegitimacy rates among all affected groups.
C) provide large benefits across the board to lift welfare recipients out of poverty.
D) make families self-sufficient by ending the cycle of dependency on government benefits.
E) coerce the states to be held more accountable for the distribution of the block-grant funding from the federal government.

Question 39

Which statement is true concerning welfare in the 1980s?

A) Conservatives tried to nationalize and expand welfare programs.
B) Liberals tried to eliminate federal welfare programs.
C) Conservatives tried to require that welfare recipients must participate in job training as a condition of receiving benefits.
D) Conservatives and liberals finally agreed upon welfare policies and job-training programs.
E) The number of people on welfare fell dramatically throughout the decade.

Question 40

Which statement is true?

A) Texas has about the same rate of health insurance coverage as the rest of the nation.
B) Texas has a higher proportion of its citizens with health insurance coverage because of Texas individualism.
C) Texas leads the nation in the percentage of residents who lack health insurance coverage.
D) Texas has maintained stringent control of health insurance coverage, and to receive welfare benefits you must have private insurance coverage.
E) Every Texan is covered under Medicaid.

Question 41

In legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court ruled that

A) it is unconstitutional to force people to buy health insurance.
B) the tax penalizing people who failed to purchase medical insurance was unconstitutional.
C) the tax penalizing people who failed to purchase medical insurance was constitutional.
D) the legislation in its entirety was unconstitutional.
E) the commerce clause gives Congress unlimited power to regulate as long as it is for the general welfare.

Question 42

In the case of Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel (2012), farmers argued that

A) the rights to the water in the aquifer were beyond the reach of the federal government because of long-standing precedent dating back to Mexican common law.
B) they had the rights to the water based upon their ownership of the land above it.
C) they had water rights because they have prior claim pursuant to Texas sovereignty under federalism.
D) they had water rights based on the eminent domain doctrine of the federal Constitution.
E) unless water is in a sealed container aboveground, no one can own it.

Question 43

The Texas case Edgewood ISD v. Kirby involved funding of the schools using the property tax system.

Question 44

The San Antonio School District became one of the first school districts in Texas to comply with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

Question 45

Most of the water used in Texas comes from

A) ocean desalinization plants.
B) aboveground lakes and streams.
C) aquifers.
D) rainwater collected in holding ponds.
E) man-made cisterns.

Question 46

Plessy v. Ferguson overturned the doctrine of separate but equal.

Question 47

According to a report released in July 2012 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, relative to other states, Texas is ranked ______ in health care services and delivery.

A) first
B) about average
C) last
D) in the top 10 percent
E) above average

Question 48

Underlying water policy in Texas is

A) federal law mandating all aspects of water use in Texas.
B) a complicated system of private property rights.
C) the fact that Texas has no major rivers, lakes, or aquifers.
D) fear that Texas is in a permanent state of drought.
E) fierce competition with Mexico over water rights.

Question 49

The 1983 report by the National Commission on Education had no effect on Texas because of its existing excellent system of public education.

Question 50

In March 2010, Congress passed ______, substantially altering the nation's health care system.

A) No Child Left Behind
B) the Affordable Care Act
C) the National Women's Health Act
D) the Dream Act
E) the Fiscal Cliff Act

Question 51

The "law of capture" as it pertains to water policy in Texas essentially means that

A) the state owns the water rights because it is sovereign over Texas residents.
B) the federal government has the right to capture water in Texas because of the supremacy clause in the federal Constitution.
C) that the first person to "capture" the water by pumping it out of the ground owns it.
D) that the state can capture and tax any business that uses state water without reporting usage statistics to the state water board.
E) only water "captured" in surface retaining ponds can be owned.

Question 52

Which statement regarding the Affordable Care Act is true?

A) Congress was sharply split along party lines.
B) It was passed with the vote of large majorities of both parties.
C) It was vetoed by the president because it included a tax increase.
D) It was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
E) It immediately reduced the cost of health care for all Americans.

Question 53

The constitutionality of using property tax revenues in school finance has been an issue in terms of providing equal opportunities for Texans.

Question 54

Which statement regarding water policy in Texas is true?

A) Water rights are a complicated matter balancing private property considerations and the public good.
B) The continuing conflict between Texas and Mexico on the rights to the water flowing as part of the Rio Grande.
C) The business community is usually at odds with the private property rights of water developers and the water processing and transportation rights of stockholders.
D) The regulatory environment in Texas does not pose a huge problem because landowners and water conservation groups promote the public interest.
E) In Texas, water demand is projected to decline substantially over the next century.

Question 55

Desegregation of public schools was supported from the beginning by Texas law.

Question 56

One important consequence of the "law of capture" concept is that it

A) encourages the responsible use of available water equally among all residents.
B) distorts the federal government influence over water policy in Texas.
C) forces businesses and corporations to be good community citizens.
D) encourages landowners to take as much water as possible from groundwater sources.
E) ensures that Texas will never face water scarcity.

Question 57

Most of the water in Texas is for

A) national defense purposes.
B) home consumption by households.
C) irrigation.
D) additional water supplies for neighboring states.
E) livestock consumption.

Question 58

Texas, because of its widespread support for public education, has a long-standing history of spending more per pupil than most states do.

Question 59

Responding to the Supreme Court decision on national health care legislation of 2010, Governor Perry announced that

A) Texas agreed with the Supreme Court's decision.
B) Texas would increase funding for Medicaid by borrowing substantial sums of money on Wall Street.
C) the Texas legislature would happily increase taxes to fund the expanded Medicaid program.
D) Texas might not participate in the expanded Medicaid program.
E) President Obama should be impeached.

Question 60

Two of the strategies that have been developed by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to meet the long-term needs of Texas include

A) raising the tax on water to encourage conservation efforts and statewide water restrictions.
B) importing more water from surrounding states where water is more plentiful and encouraging more citizens to dig their own wells.
C) the focus on conservation and expanding and developing available surface water.
D) requesting federal funding to develop massive desalinization plants along the Gulf Coast and laws restricting the construction of in-ground pools.
E) mandatory rationing and raising the tax on water.

Question 61

Poverty among children in Texas is about the same as the national average.

Question 62

The law of capture works in support of conservation efforts.

Question 63

Under the concept of federalism, welfare policy is largely separate from federal programs and policy making.

Question 64

Explain the impact that A Nation at Risk had upon education policy in Texas.

Question 65

How did the 1996 Welfare reform legislation passed during the Clinton administration affect welfare policy in Texas?

Question 66

Since the program's creation, participation rates for Medicaid have remained fairly constant throughout the nation and in Texas.

Question 67

The 2010 legislation passed under the Obama administration, dealing with national health care, has enjoyed unusually high levels of bipartisan support.

Question 68

What are some of the considerations in evaluating welfare policy?

Question 69

Explain the impact that Brown v. Board of Education had upon education policy in Texas.

Question 70

Discuss the controversy surrounding the issue of welfare dependency.

Question 71

Currently in the United States, welfare is considered a local issue and responsibility.

Question 72

No Pass, No Play stipulated that students could not participate in extracurricular activities unless they met certain academic standards.

Question 73

Aquifers are a significant source of water in Texas.

Question 74

Discuss several court cases that have had an impact on public education in Texas.

Question 75

Under the TANF program, states were given more control over welfare policies for their citizens.

Question 76

Why does Texas have a relatively underperforming public education sector in comparison to national norms and averages?

Question 77

One of the perverse effects of public welfare is that it encourages fathers to stay connected to their families and help raise their children.

Question 78

The poverty index is not adjusted for inflation; therefore, it is impossible to balance the state budget as mandated by the state constitution.

Question 79

According to the law of capture, private property owners are not entitled to water taken from under the land they own.

Question 80

The 2011 legislative session achieved a balanced budget without raising taxes and without any cuts in primary and secondary education.