Minnesota Education Policy Fellowship (MN EPF)
Minnesota Education Policy Fellowship (MNEPF) is a joint venture of the Center for Policy Design, a 501(c)(3), and the Lakes Country Service Cooperative—a public non-profit membership organization. The first year of the Fellowship was 1975-76. Since then nearly 550 Fellows have completed this unique policy experience. Together this forms an important network for Minnesota and the nation.
THE FELLOWSHIP
The Fellowship has as a primary focus on state and federal public policy development and the leadership that is necessary to influence public policy development. It is designed to expand and update your working knowledge of state and federal public policy, analysis, design and implementation.
THE LEARNING MODEL
The Fellowship’s learning process is experiential. It is based on the belief that knowledge and skills are the “Residue that is left when the experience wears off.”
CREATING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR OPEN CONVERSATION—THE SEMINARS
The seminars are the backbone of the Fellowship. They are designed to provide you an up close and personal experience that will include discussions and conversations with key members of Minnesota’s executive and legislative branch and their staff.
MN EPF has a proud history of trust with those who will discuss, very candidly, some of the most sensitive problems (and solutions) facing our state and nation. You can, and should, talk about the seminars but we ask that you not attribute names as part of your conversations with others.
PUBLIC POLICY DESIGN BRIEF
The Public Policy Design Brief (PDB), like a legal brief, is intended to guide you to convince the reader that the public policy issue in the Public Policy Design Brief (PDB) is worth an in-depth review and investigation.
It is critically important that the reader can, in a short period of time, clearly see the relevance and importance of the public policy design being proposed. Here is the table of contents for the brief:
- Title
- Executive Summary
- Problem(s) to be Solved
- Goal(s) to be Achieved
- Options Considered
- Policy How(s)
- Implementation How(s)
- Political How(s)
CONDITIONS, PROBLEMS, POLICIES, POLITICS
Public policy starts with a condition or a problem. A condition is a situation or circumstance in which no one will invest. If you believe that “poverty will always be with us”, then you believe that poverty is a condition. If poverty will always be with us, why work on it? A condition must be turned in to a problem before you can convince someone to work on it.
Once you have a problem clearly identified you can develop a policy to address it. What is left then is the politics of getting it enacted and implemented. You will hear often during the Fellowship, “What is the problem, what is the goal and what are the “hows”?”—what are the policy “hows”, what are the implementation “hows” and what are the political “hows”?
UNDERSTANDING POLICY ENTREPRENEURS
Understanding the role of public policy entrepreneurs is critical to working in the public policy arena. The concept was introduced by John W. Kingdon in 1984, who said policy entrepreneurs “…could be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, in interest groups or research organizations. The public policymaking space, according to Kingdon, is made up by three more or less independent activities:
- the problem stream,
- the political stream, and
- the public policy stream.
He argued that moments arise when perceptions of problems, political circumstances, and ideas for possible solutions all come into alignment. This is where you find the policy entrepreneurs.
These moments are called ‘public policy windows and offer a real chance to enact significant policy change.
Policy entrepreneurs believe problems are not really problems of “performance.” They are problems of public policy design, fixed only by redesigning the systems that shapes the way people and organizations behave. This is called “Large System Architecture” (LSA). Organizations tend to behave the way they are structured and rewarded to behave. If you don’t like the way they are behaving, you probably to change the way they’re structured and rewarded.
This Fellowship is unique in its focus on “public policy entrepreneurs” which can be very useful in the creation of a “Public Policy Design Brief”.
A WORKING DEFINITION OF PUBLIC POLICY
There are many working definitions of the term “public policy.” To help us be clear in our policy discussions we will use the following definitions of public policy:
- Public policy is a course of action, for a given period of time, based on a given set of circumstances, designed to influence future decisions or actions.
- Public policy design is a proposal for action, for a given period of time, based on a given set of circumstances, designed to influence future decisions or actions.
- The Fellowship will provide you with the support, independently or with others, to create a Policy Design Brief (PDB) on a policy issue that is important to you.
PUBLIC POLICY DESIGN CYCLE
The “Public Policy Design Cycle” (PDC) will be used to provide a map on how to advance public policy. It is a public policy tool that explains how policy moves from “values” to “problems” to “issues” and then moves to action.
The PDC provides guidance about where to start on any public policy work. Our values tell us to describe some things as “problems” and some as “issues.” We want to solve the problem most often without deciding on a “goal.” What is needed is a clear statement of the problem and a clear statement of the goal. Then the “how?” question can be asked. Finding the ‘How’ requires finding and fixing a problem that has a clearly stated goal.
PUBLIC POLICY LEADERSHIP
Public policy work requires a special type of leadership—both transactional and transformational. You cannot get to transformation in the public policy arena without a solid base of transactional leadership.
PBLIC POLICY NETWORK
MNEPF, over the past 45 years, has created a unique public policy network consisting of nearly 600 Fellows, sponsors and guests. Upon your selection as an MNEPF Fellow you become part of this network.
INTERESTED?
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