Introduction
In public administration, bureaucracy is one of the concepts that continue to elicit debates among the administrators and government officials, with excessive delays in the government processes being the main questions often discussed. Bureaucracies have not only been debatable in the centralized governments where service delivery relies on the procedures planned and executed within the central systems, but they have also existed in decentralized governments (Pecorella and Stonecash 10).
America has one of the heavily decentralized governments, but a few of its organizations seem to grapple with the issues surrounding bureaucracy in decision-making processes. The New York State education department is one of the organizations that have persistently debated about the issues surrounding the existence of bureaucratic arrangements in the issues surrounding policy formulation, budget planning, and resource allocation (Pecorella and Stonecash 7). Following the recent spate of controversies, this essay focuses on examining the New York State budget for educational policies to examine some of the bureaucratic issues surrounding the organization.
Rancorous Debates Since 2010
The initial war on fund allocation in the New York State schools began during the era of President Reagan when the government began tampering with the education budget to implement some budget reductions (Rubin 9). However, there have been controversies regarding the manner in which the New York State allocates money to the education department since 2004, although major bureaucratic issues began towards the beginning of 2010 (Rubin 5).
In New York’s history, major educational financing reforms began at the beginning of 2010, when the educational system for the New York State embarked on a different system of designing and implementing the school budgets (Rubin 11). When Cuomo took over the governorship and the ultimate control of the New York States affairs, including the educational policies and budget allocation, certain turnarounds occurred. According to Rubin (13), Cuomo has been advocating for an increment of the school budgets but has been oblivious about the present teacher’s evaluation system that seems controllable.
Most of the issues that have been persistent in the education department of the New York State have revolved around budget allocation, the assessment of the performance of the teachers, the agendas proposed by the governor, and the individual plight of the students (Pecorella and Stonecash 17). Bureaucratic issues that have affected policy development and administrative reforms in the N.Y. State Budget began since 2010 when Governor Andrew Cuomo and other education departments remained at loggerheads with the teachers concerning budgetary allocation.
Pecorella and Stonecash (14) assert that while Governor Andrew Cuomo has been pushing for reforms that would assist in improving the performance of the students, teachers and the expenditures of the schools, several bureaucracies within the two houses of the parliament and several other organizations for the teachers have been causing lags in the development agendas of the governor. Rubin (21) states that major bureaucracies have been eminent in the issues that surround the budget and dollar amounts.
Debates over Budget & Dollar Amounts
When he took power in 2011, Cuomo found the economy of the New York State in distress due to the spillover of the 2007-2008 economic hardships (DiNapoli 31). The persistent action aimed to improve the education department of New York has been the budget reforms that have resulted in the launch of the $142 billion education budget in April 2015 (Pecorella and Stonecash 23). However, several bureaucracies have affected the effective approval of the budget by the parliament.
One of the major debates that surrounded the budget and dollar amounts is the issue that concerns the excess budget that would definitely benefit the private schools rather than the public schools. Many opponents from different political affiliations with Cuomo argued that the budget is beyond the ability of the N.Y. State given its recent financial crunches (Pecorella and Stonecash 16). For the bill to remain approved, the involvement of the Senate and the State assemblies were indisputable bureaucratic arrangements.
War on budget formation and increment of the education finance began right from 2009, even before Cuomo become the governor of the State of New York. However, the proposals of Cuomo caused serious debates (DiNapoli 24). In 2011, the budget was at $125 billion, and in 2012; the budget was at $129 billion. In the fiscal years of 2013 and 2014, the education budgets were approximately $133 billion and $134 billion, respectively (DiNapoli 29).
According to the sentiments of Cuomo, the budget for education has been soaring, and teachers have been underperforming in schools, while the assessment tests for the teachers indicate otherwise (DiNapoli 15). While the status quo is an issue, which Cuomo is fighting in the rigid education systems, lawmakers and politicians have further promulgated the prevalence of the faulty educational systems in the New York State. The table below indicates the manner in which the school’s expenditure has been, and how bureaucracy has been affecting the budget reforms since the year 2011.
Table: Bureaucracies in the New York State Education Budget from 2011 to date.
A 2015-2016 budget proposal of $142 billion that increases the total spending for the education by 2.8% and a growth of 1.7% in the State taxpayer expenses would seem ridiculous to most of the New York residents (DiNapoli 13). This statement was a strong argument that most of the republican lawmakers raised against the education budget proposals. The opposing team against the reforms also commented that the $1.6 billion increase in the education spending would encourage performance laxity given the fact that the amendments to improve the assessment of the public teachers and the ethics reforms were on the verge of collapse (DiNapoli 38).
On the other side of the argument, most of the lawmakers and the teachers who were supporting budget increment claimed that the effective allocation of funds to the schools would support the proposed school reforms (Cuomo 21). The issues were however complex, as the bureaucratic arrangement of the Senate and the assembly caused controversies.
Differences between the Political Parties
The direct involvement of politicians in the state and national governments is a regular cause of disagreement in America. The proposed amendments on the budget and on the education policies of the New York Schools faced bureaucratic delays due to the political differences that exist between the lawmakers in the Senate house and in the State assembly (Cuomo 7).
While figuring out how politics directly contributed to the bureaucratic delays experienced in the endorsement of the Cuomo educational reforms, it is first important to understand the composition of the two legislative houses. Since time immemorial, the government of the United States has faced serious challenges in handling the political differences between the two major political parties, the democrats’ political party, and the republicans’ political party (Cuomo 27). The two houses, the Senate of the New York State, and the assembly have different numbers of political representatives (Cuomo 42). The significances of the Cuomo reforms were definitely void when it came to political differences.
For any amendment or reform to become legal, the involvement of the two legislative houses is paramount and normally indisputable. Governor Cuomo is a staunch democrat and his proposals towards increasing the education budget and imposing the ethics and assessment reforms were almost useless before most of the republicans’ who attended the parliament sessions (DiNapoli 31). Although the reforms must bureaucratically get the approvals of the two houses of legislators, the lawmakers of the democrats’ side were proposing while majority of the republican were opposing the budget and ethics reforms that Cuomo had presented (Cuomo 15).
The republican members said that it was rather absurd and irrational for the lawmakers to pass the amendments knowing very well that New York State could not keep up with the growing educational expenditures (Cuomo 23). The republican lawmakers further argued that the budget was a private deal between the governor and the private investors to frustrate the funding systems of the public schools.
Conclusion
Bureaucracies in government organizations are increasingly becoming a nuisance to the development agendas and reform strategies intended by some reformist officials. The bureaucratic arrangements in the amendment of the New York State budget are gradually affecting the process of providing schools with the most desired reforms. Even as the approval of the reforms proposed by governor rightfully, require the involvement of the Senate and the State assembly, political differences between the lawmakers of democrats’ and the republicans’ are harmful.
The New York State budget for educational policies requires interplay of several policymakers to approve the amendments. Nonetheless, despite bureaucracy causing some controversial debates among the lawmakers and the involved members, bureaucratic arrangements are important in ensuring that policymaking is procedurally right. Such bureaucracies are generally important in ensuring that policies associated with the development agendas set for the States are in tandem with the legal, social, and public demands.
Works Cited
Cuomo, Andrew 2015. 2015-16 Executive Budget. Web.
DiNapoli, Thomas 2012. Report on the State Fiscal Year 2011-12 Enacted Budget. Web.
DiNapoli, Thomas 2015. Preliminary Report on the State Fiscal Year 2014-15 Enacted Budget. Web.
Pecorella, Robert, and Jeffrey Stonecash. Governing New York State, Sixth Edition, New York, United States: SUNY Press, 2012. Print.
Rubin, Irene. Public Budgeting: Policy, Process, and Politics, London, United Kingdom: Rutledge Publishers, 2015. Print.