Quote of the day

I am proud to say that I am a co-author of a chapter that will be published by the University of Texas Press in the book Invisible City by John Gilderbloom.

I was reading the manuscript, the chapter on the "pros and cons of rent control" and this section jumped out at me, especially given the previous blog entry about the recently released Reason Foundation study on traffic congestion...

"Another major theme ... is how public policy is manufactured and disseminated by organizations that have a major financial stake in a particular outcome. Urban policy analysis is not a neutral field of study carried out by dispassionate academics. It is dominated by hack researchers whose conclusions are determined by the client paying for the study... The dominance of real estate-spnsored studies in the urban arena is shocking and demonstrates the role that ideas have in determining public-policy outcomes. Even more surprising is how influential these studies are in compelling the media, politicians, and even academics to take positions on urban policy questions based on their biased and unmerited conclusions."

Now I would have written this a little differently. It shouldn't be surprising that ideas and studies are influential. After all, that's why we do this kind of work, to influence and shape policy, implementation, and action.

What's surprising is that flawed work, flawed conclusions get so much play, without much analysis or digging into the influences. As Graham Allison wrote in the book Essence of Decision, "where you stand depends on where you sit" or who is signing or funding the paycheck.

What's even more surprising and damning is that too often, especially at the level of local government, even in "big" cities, no attention whatsoever is paid to substantive policy research, findings, conclusions, and the elucidation of best (or better) practices and policies.

The current "debate" about how to "fix" DC's public school system is a case in point.

At the University of Maryland, Professor Clarence Stone led a multi-year study of school improvement in 11 urban school systems. (The study was entitled "Civic Capacity and Urban Education" and it was funded by the National Science Foundation.) The project produced many publications and important analysis and conclusions.

I don't think this body of work was referenced at all in any of the policy and legislative decisions thus far concerning changes in governance or operation of the school system and the education functions of the city.

Instead, current reform efforts which are too new to be able to draw substantive conclusions from make up the body of work referenced in this change effort.