Introduction
Public policy is a system of laws and regulations that define the state objectives relating to various aspects (CQ Press, 2011). Additionally, public policy issues require high attention and collaborative engagement for both members of the public and state. The government, through the ministry of finance, has a broad responsibility towards ensuring that there is adequate funding to all sectors of the economy.
The budget should be set such that the most urgent needs of the society are given priority. Issues such as health care, education, and training should be prioritized. Over the years, Mississippi and some parts of the United State have not been experiencing public policy problems. This discussion will focus on public policy problems in Mississippi. This is because Mississippi State is ranked as the poorest state in the United States (Conforti, 1994). The focus will be on some of those public policy problems in Mississippi.
Health care issues
The evaluation of health care system in Mississippi by Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) revealed that there are some aspects that needed to be prioritised. Priority was given to activities such as disease prevention, healthcare protection, and health promotion. Other policy aspects include health care for a certain population, implementation of a state-wide trauma system, and health care for people with mental illness.
The government should not forget to address critical issues such as the enhancement of detection and response to the public health emergencies like the bio-terrorism (Conforti, 1994). The state should improve the economic situation of its people by allocating adequate funds to health care system to address the problems.
The U.S. government should further ensure that trauma victims receive adequate attention from the experts. This can be achieved by allocating sufficient funding to cater for training expenses (Cochran, 2012). Additionally, the federal government should provide Mississippi health care system with modern technological system to provide services to patients.
Education and training issues
Over the recent years, Mississippi has been experiencing serious problems in the education sector. The problems are due to unequal funding to schools. The public school funding comes from federal state and the local resources. In addition, the problems have escalated since almost half of the funding comes from local property taxes. The system generates large funding disparities between the rich and the poor states (Conforti, 1994).
This means that a student schooling in New Jersey is provided more than twice the student schooling in Mississippi. The large disparity in funding translates to poor learning facilities and the inability to hire highly trained teachers. Therefore, this leads to poor performances by students in underfunded public schools. Poor performances deny students an opportunity to enhance their education. This leads to the unemployment problem and escalated poverty (American Legion, 1937).
Arguments that support public policy problems have not been addressed
Unequal distribution of resources in Mississippi and other parts of the U.S. is a growing matter of concern. For example, according to Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), there are some unmet needs in the health sector that should be addressed (Conforti, 1994). Also, there are high disparities in income and education standards between the rich and poor states. Therefore, adequate policy framework should be adopted to address the issues before they become critical (Peters, 2004).
Conclusion
The U. S. government should prioritise the allocation of funds on its budget to the most urgent sectors of the economy. From the above discussion, the U.S. government should promote the economic development of Mississippi by allocating sufficient funds to various sectors. This will ensure that the economy of Mississippi will grow, and the perceived inequality on resource distribution will be addressed comprehensively.
References
American Legion (1937). The American Legion magazine. Washington, D.C.: American Legion Magazine.
Cochran, C.E. (2012). American public policy: An introduction. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Conforti, M. (1994). Minnesota 1900: Art and life on the upper Mississippi, 1890-1915. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
CQ Press (2011). Issues for debate in American public policy: Selections from CQ Researcher. Washington, D.C: CQ Press, a division of SAGE.
Peters, B.G. (2004). American public policy: Promise and performance. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.